Dionysus, I’m begging, but he’s choking me with grape vines
to watch me turn purple, then green, and his eyes
are dripping, pouring. I’m asking, is that for me?
Yes. His voice is that that of a hundred crying babies.
It’ll make your troubles a little lighter. The panther looms
in the jungle behind ivy, ears back. soft. scared.
Dionysus is flicking away a patch of marble on his cheek,
spitting bout how they chiseled him rotten
and how he preferred bursting from his father’s bloody thigh
more than that statue. He’s smiling at me with a thousand teeth
and three jaws, grape juice and slobber dripping off his tongue,
carved like a gothic pitchfork, all underneath the canopy
of two thousand birds circling above, waiting. ready. hungry.
Baby bird’s sharpening his wings and snapping his dull beak in half
to have shards, screaming obscenities in form of a light tune.
Thunderstorms in the distance. Don’t worry, Dionysus is laughing.
He’s spitting teeth and liver on the ground. Dad doesn’t visit here.
Divine snot is running free from Dionysus’s nose, and his teeth
are glinting three thousand bottles. Take a sip, he’s saying.
And then we’re kissing ecstasy, his lips rigid like a wine bottle.
Brilliant. That’s it. I love this.
When I first read this, I didn’t get it. Now that I look at it with fresh eyes, I love the ending! I love how you are taken out the relationship for a bit and shoved back in. It comes together well.
I love mythology, and Greek is just one of my favorite. So, obviously, I was hooked off by the bat by the mention of Dionysus. However, it got even better; your phrases and word choices are always so bizarre yet beautiful. Great job!
This is wild, and I’m in love with it.
This is really great! So is greek mythology as a whole and you should make this a series. The accuracy of Dionysus’ birth is great.
I used to be obsessed with anything Mythology-related, so this really made me happy, especially because I understood the references. It was really cool how you made the Mythology personal and a metaphor on it’s own (Dionysus), all while creating beautiful metaphors to coincide with the overall theme. This was pretty:)