Sing to Me

Mani Rao

Excerpted from Gods R Us, Anomalous Press Chapbook Contest Notable

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O muses, excuse
this non-descript call I

            wonder
Who among you apt
Who, interested

Greek and Sanskrit
A must

I mean not words,
Spaces

where two species
            gods/humans
intersect

O

Calliope           Erato                Thalia
Clio                 Melpomena     Urania
Euterpe            Polyhymnia     Terpsichore

Magic nine
All-girl cast,

Dad a voluptuary
Stepmother hung by her heels

Constant news of half-sisters
Mother in deep glue

When family’s this dys
Your friends are poets

Mt. Parnassus at
Your Apollo-dance

Sappho plays on,
Trade for a tradition.

Homer restless
Ovid morbid

Blake who met Ezekiel
Dante, Virgil

Come one, two, three, nine
Take turns if you tire

You’re Kali for Kalidasa
Ganesha for Vyasa

For Lorca duende, for Merril
A red-winged bat

Welcome the furies
Alecto              Magaera          Tisiphone

Justices of peace
We’ll need them too

Around orchards Grecian
On battlefields Trojan

In Shiva’s realm, inside
Hanuman’s heart

Gods are us


Mani Rao is the author of seven books of poetry and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita. www.manirao.com has links to her publications.