[Cadmus & Harmonia; u/k artist, 17th Century].....

from Mortal Men
--Reginald Gibbons (2002)

Mythological Kadmos-- godlike
Warrior yet still a mortal man,
And himself a fantasy of those
.......Who told his story-- married
An immortal woman, Harmonia.
.......He said that to lie with her
Was a bliss on earth for which there were
No words. And  yet however chastely
Men might still wish their goddesses to act,
Doesn't describing their naked beauty already
.......Trouble sacred fantasies?
.......Something tumbles down.

......On some demolished but still gleaming
......Acropolis of thought,
Language is our Parthenon:
Always in ruins-- but unlike stone,
Always rebuilding itself already.
..............And not far from it
..............In spring light,
..............Delicate red
.......Poppies bloom at the unnamed foot
Of each gnarled growing gray-green column
And everywhere a poem can't reach.