This is not a
Lullaby
I’ve kept your
communications
and erased the
error of mine,
a crow carries
them in his beak,
away, away,
like your soul flew.
Is the weather
to your liking?
I’ve heard
Purgatory is a bit like Miami,
hot, steamy,
late August and hurricanes,
do they ease
your mind like hiding in the bathroom?
Charon cannot
decide whether you’re East or West,
North, South,
or straight down in the pit,
God has left
the building and still, you have these burning desires,
He’ll see
you’ve gone up the road without Him.
And how is your
cooking? Is your oven on?
That’s the way,
fast asleep, a nice rump roast
and the singe
of hair, that smoky hue you’ve always wanted,
where there’s
no smoke, the fire in your eyes goes out
Forever.
Charon -- Alexander Adam
Charon (Kharon), the son of Erebos (Darkness) and his sister Nyx (Night), was the ferryman of Hades, taking the souls of those who had received the proper burial rites over the Acheron or Styx river to the region of the underworld where the dead went immediately after dying (named after his father Erebos); there, it would be decided how they would spend their afterlife, either in in Elysium (reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes chosen by the gods,and the righteous, where they would continue happily in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life) or Tartaros (the deep abyss that was used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked). Hermes would escort a newly deceased soul to the Acheron, and Charon would ferry him across in exchange for the coin that had been placed in the mouth of the corpse, usually an obolus or danake. Those who could not pay the fee or were buried without a coin would wander the banks of the river for a century like a ghost.Some figures, such as Orpheus, were able to charm him into granting them passage with other forms of payment rather than a coin. And Herakles forced him to transport him without payment, for which action Hades sentenced Charon to a year in chains.
ReplyDelete