The Edges of Things
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Chariotless God
​

Picture
Chariotless God
Published with Kalopsia Literary Journal September, 2020
Words in Italics are from the Iliad
 


With such a name as Ares, I expect him to be more than the keeper of an orange apron and stale cigar smoke but when he speaks, I know this is folly. Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar.

I’m used to disappointment though. And audiences. He has two guard dogs. Or vultures. When I make eye contact, the skinny one looks down, engaging in ridiculous busyness. The bald one carries, holstered on his hip, the symbol of danger ready at his disposal. His gun is the summary of him.

Orange Apron is mired in a state of suspended anticipation in which things for him are started and yet nothing ever begins. He’s experiencing the wanting of something without knowing what it could possibly be. He is bored and he cannot take himself in hand. Instead he prowls, looking for a brawl. To me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympus.

At first, I am disoriented, experiencing the unloveliness of this man’s permanent scars. Blood rushes up my neck and into my cheeks. I am reduced to lowest terms by him. Defined and then restricted. I don’t even exist in the whole universe. He is the kind of subtraction that turns me deadish. I’m temporarily held captive by the notion that I don’t talk back to men with gray hair.

“Well. Well. Well. Whose little girl are you?”

Orange Apron has had eight decades, at least, to commit to fathoming his inadequacies and warning others of them in good time, with apology and charm. Yet he persists here, jonesing for battle, a known quantity behind a retail counter, with the inability to harness the world without destroying it. Forever quarreling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.

“You wanna build somethin’? Take somethin’ apart? Or keep somethin’ from fallin’ apart? Which is it? I sell it all here.”

He leans over the wide counter all of his weight on his hands, his jaw jutted out arrogantly. The stench of his stale smoke fills my nostrils. But were you born of some other god and proved so ruinous.

“I can help you with it all, Doll.”

Those things of which I can perceive the beginnings and the ends are not me. I am not the audible world. Nor am I the silence. I am not rooted in utterances or elapsed instants. I am not anyone’s.

“Well? Little girl, what can I do for you?” Long since you would have been dropped beneath the gods of the bright sky.

“I came here to have ten keys made. But there’s absolutely nothing you could ever do for me. You gods, you continue to disappoint.”

“Wut?”

“Nothing.”

Tragic gods always under interpret. I’m certain there’s a dog at home he’s made mean. Chariotless god.
 



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  • Something You Don't Know Yet - Chapbook with ShabdAaweg Press
  • Buy Chapbook Something You Don't Know Yet at ShabdAaweg Press
  • About
  • Contact
  • Mouthful of Storm- Wild Roof Journal/lyrical prose
  • This Blood Is Beautiful-Wishbone Words/CNF
  • No One Writes About Agnes-The Red Fez Literary Magazine/CNF
  • Mine-Hearth & Coffin/CNF
  • The Elephants Only I Can See-TMP Magazine, Lyrical Prose
  • Dust-Miniskirt Magazine/CNF
  • The Woman With Mice-Misery Tourism/Fiction
  • How to Wake Up Feeling Dangerous-Anti Heroin Chic Magazine/Poetry
  • Bone World-Prometheus Dreaming/lyrical prose
  • I Know a Wall When I See One - Tangled Locks Journal/CNF
  • Animal Instinct- Pangyrus Literary Magazine/CNF
  • Tick-HerStry/CNF
  • Handler-Anti-Heroine Chic Magazine/CNF
  • When the East Wind Comes-Months to Years Literary Journal/CNF
  • The Man with the Round Tomatoes in the Square Baskets-Prometheus Dreaming/CNF
  • Pandemically Yours
  • Chariotless God-Kalopsia Literary Journal/CNF
  • The Dead Are Holding Something Back-Prometheus Dreaming/CNF
  • The Carving Tree-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Along Third Street-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Me Going Gone-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • For Grief and For Ironing-The Feminine Collective/lyrical prose
  • When the New People Came-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • At the Mercy of my Own Forgetting-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • The Rent I Pay-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • By the Dead Purple Lady-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Unbearably Gone-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Evidence of a Struggle-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Your Phone Call-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Sylvie of the Stone Stoop-Intermission/poetry
  • Charlie's Assessment-Intermission/poetry
  • Signed, Legally Ryn-Intermission/poetry
  • It's Been Raining-Intermission/poetry
  • Fingerprint Failure-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Bolstered by the Flask-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I Hear Them Bleeding Hope-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I'm Partial-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Inside Out Pain-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Probably Confabulations-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine-poetry
  • Revenant Gloam-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Lies Heavy-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Mark of the Empty-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Barely Aloof-Poet's Haven Digest Anthology, The Distance Between Insanity and Genius/poetry
  • Fata Morgana-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Time Will Spend Us-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I Cannot Make Permanent Things-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Silence Necessary-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Tidally Locked-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Blue, I Think-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Revenant Gloam-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Swiftly Flying Shadow Bands-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Apostle of Disbelief-Poet's Haven Digest, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night AnthologPublished in The Poet’s Haven Digest Anthology, Strange Land and in The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Measurable Objective-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Cacti Toucher-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Mean Free Path-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I am a Bridge-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Gurney for Me-The Feminine Collective/poetry
  • Just the Other Stuff-The Feminine Collective/poetry
  • A Valid Exit-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetryu
  • Everything Hard is Tangled-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • On Zillow-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Out by the Shed-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Press