Saturday, June 16, 2007

Lost Babylon

 

He leaped at me
from the faded tiles of
Ishtar's procession.
His claws sank deep
into my flesh,
the dust of all illusions upon us.
"What seek you?"
he rumbled. "The brilliance
is gone,
the gold is ashes."
"One named Alexander," I said.
"He was once a god."

Copyright © Vesper L. All rights reserved.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, would you please pass this note along to Alexander? I invite him to come visit me on my new blog, Literary Lion of Lyon. He would probably recognize me from the blog’s title, but tell him Roary sent the invitation. Thanks.

Roary ^..^

Bonnie Jacobs said...

I like that Alexander, the god, could be either the lion or Alexander the Great. Very strong poem, Vesper, and the picture is also powerful and surprisingly full of color. Do you think this one has been restored?

I see Roary has been here before me. He seems to have been making the rounds of his friends from the pride. Speaking of "pride" ... I guess you can tell he's very proud of himself for starting a blog.

Anonymous said...

another fantastic tribute!

Vesper said...

Bonnie, thank you! You are right, I am thinking of both the lion and Alexander the Great. The portion of the wall must have been restored. I can't imagine it to be in such a perfect shape after so many years...

CS, thank you so much! I felt it - even more than the other one.

Mediterranean Views said...

I like the poem,and poetry is not usually my thing, although I have been drawn to it recently. Did the poem inspire the image, or the image inspire the poem?
Amy from Med Views

Anonymous said...

"He was once a god." Oh man, that is good. Very nice, Ms. Vesper.

And I loved your work on Inner Minx. Very nicely done.

Vesper said...

Amy, thank you. I seldom write poetry myself. It has to come to me, sometimes from a word, sometimes from an image. This is inspired by this image and by the lion on the side, and also by history. I've always been fascinated by the antiquity.

Mr. GoodThomas, thank you!
The same goes for 'An evening in' - as usual!