Unmourned to Orcus Wait, the hero, maybe half a god is coming, Caesar or his like, even Hercules; hail ceaselessly, stay put, don't move an inch, look out for everything, look out for a triumphant entrance, big enough to show even heroes and demigods deign to pass pass pass by on their way to Olympus or the lord of the shadows. Salute, raise your arms, swoon, but don't hail the wrong Hercules screaming in the Nessus shirt or Caesar, stuck with knives; they don't exactly exist that way. You nothings, you nobodies crowding the streets be thankful you're ciphers, bless your stars you didn't end up with that Nessus shirt or sharp steel; there's more to being big than fame and glory or a name babbled away down the centuries; you'll never know it, groundlings, on your way unmourned, unsung, silent and nameless, one after another going going, oblivious, gone down forever to Hades.
Jack D. Harvey’s poetry has appeared in Scrivener, The Comstock Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Typishly Literary Magazine, The Antioch Review, The Piedmont Poetry Journal and elsewhere. He has been a Pushcart nominee and over the years has been published in a few anthologies. He has been writing poetry since he was sixteen and lives in a small town near Albany, New York. He is retired from doing whatever he was doing before he retired. His book, Mark the Dwarf is available on Kindle here.
Pulsebeat Poetry Journal 