The Poetry of Ellin Anderson

THE  LITTLE GOD OF JOY

Ellin Anderson
 

Where hands of ether break the chains that bind,
No triple-headed dog confronts the dead:
Before Elysium, my wraith will find
A cat with a corona on his head,

Who purrs and tells me, "Once again, we meet,
Our halos duly stamped and certified;
My cancer and your anguish gave them heat,
And they burned brighter every time I died."

I answer him:  "They cut your tumor out,
And placed it in a balance, set apart
From that frail organ — where, I have no doubt,
Your ounce of flesh outweighed the human heart,

And if you thought to nibble on my toe,
You got here first — I guess we'll never know."
 

© 2008 by Ellin Anderson. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be copied or used in any way
without written permission from the author.

St. Patrick's Day
Seabrook
Tiger and Blue Jewel
Winter's Hill
Maple-Key Song
November in Camelot
Wassail Song
Veleda
Cinderella
The Rooster at Midsummer
Liberty Enlightens the People
The Leap
The Goldfinch
Three Bears
Song of the Lily
White Tree at Twilight
The Christmas Tree
Song-Sparrow
Grand Bois du Nord
The Owl
Moth Summer
Verticordia
Pear-Petals
Photographing the Moon
A Rabbit
Rose, Do You Know
The Two Pining Bachelors
Lorelei
Persephone
Avalon
The Harvest Chorus
The Maple Mask
Ghost Cardinal

The Little Heath-Rose
Found
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Song for the Harp
The Spinner
 
The Prayer of Cephalus
Circe and Ulysses
The Black Arts
Tristan and Isolde & Jupiter's Two Casks
Nectanebus

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More Poems by Ellin Anderson

The Little Mermaid
Vermeer
Anne's Hearth