04-24-2022, 05:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-24-2022, 05:20 PM by RiverNotch.)
19 April
Anaktoria never died,
she only married a swarthy Persian
and moved to far-away Alexandria.
Psappho, resentful and predating
the migrations and persecutions that birthed
modern sensitivities regarding race,
imagined Anaktoria to have scorched
to black through her union.
Indeed, Alcaeus was never a man,
nor were they a woman: they were first
a Lesbian, then a warrior-poet, then the brother
of Antimenides and Melanippus, then at last
Psappho's lover. What they were adamantly not
was Athenian, unlike us moderns
hung up on such foolish categories
as man and woman, straight and lesbian.
Trampling on the corpses that these ancients
never could foresee, some of us turn back
attempting to reach their innocence, believing
the poet has the freedom to sculpt
words according solely to their will.
Others move forward, trying to erase,
recapture, redeem -- only to find their task
twisting their limbs, shaping them to sacrifice.
honestly had no idea what to do with this prompt xD
Anaktoria never died,
she only married a swarthy Persian
and moved to far-away Alexandria.
Psappho, resentful and predating
the migrations and persecutions that birthed
modern sensitivities regarding race,
imagined Anaktoria to have scorched
to black through her union.
Indeed, Alcaeus was never a man,
nor were they a woman: they were first
a Lesbian, then a warrior-poet, then the brother
of Antimenides and Melanippus, then at last
Psappho's lover. What they were adamantly not
was Athenian, unlike us moderns
hung up on such foolish categories
as man and woman, straight and lesbian.
Trampling on the corpses that these ancients
never could foresee, some of us turn back
attempting to reach their innocence, believing
the poet has the freedom to sculpt
words according solely to their will.
Others move forward, trying to erase,
recapture, redeem -- only to find their task
twisting their limbs, shaping them to sacrifice.
honestly had no idea what to do with this prompt xD