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.
