Homeric Hymn

--A. E. Stallings

       

What if it wasn't hell, it was only sadness

And your mother never came looking for you, never

Put the earth on hold, calling your number,

And your husband only wanted to cheer you up

With a handful of ruby arils, a lead-crystal

Flute of bubbles that struggled to reach the surface;

What if the pit-bull with squared heads was just

That old black mutt who only yapped at ghosts,

What if the ghosts were just insomnia,

A way to never rest in peace, what if

The winter came and went and came and went,

And the spring was out of whack, and that had nothing

To do with you, and the flowers weren't lamps

Or bridal torches to solemn you into the darkness;

What if the darkness was only the curtains pinched

Against the sun in the bedroom during the day,

And what if the corner's horror was only the shadow

Of a coat hanging by its neck from a doorknob,

And the woolly fog that scumbled out of the river

Was a way of seeing carried inside your eyes,

What if the meadow of sweets was the worn world

Whose beauties would outlast you, until they didn't,

What if your alarm was just the alarm,

What if, all along, you were free to go?