Confessions of the First Son (Poem) & Loki Bound (Poem)

 (Note: These poems are an homage to Neil Gaiman's fantastic Sandman: Season of Mists. The first is inspired by Lucifer and the second by Loki. Confessions of the First Son is written in blank verse and Loki Bound is a sonnet. These are among the few poetry pieces I've written with specific meter.)

Confessions of the First Son

The evening dissipates before my eyes.

I’m sitting isolated on this beach

examining  the dying summer sky.

I want to fly again, I want to hold

the clouds, the rain, the birds and make them mine.

But I cannot. I’ve fallen and may not

see light again. The irony! These souls

call me the light!  These mortal fools. They say:

“The devil made me do it.”  “Selling souls

to Satan.” What is that? How can I own

a soul? Their souls belong to them, not me.

The poet Milton said with great disdain:

“It’s better ruling Hell than serving God

in Heaven” But that Milton was so blind,

so Puritan. There is no Hell. There is

no Heaven. None at all. A Hell?  I laugh!

You make your own. As I did when I Fell.

I tire of the loneliness, so dark.

Behold disgrace! The Fallen firstborn son—

the fool who thought about rebelling once.

But how can I rebel, the choice was not

a choice I could make mine.  No, I am part

of fate. The greatest game of all— The Fall,

the War. We were all pawns without a voice.

But we now know that I am not the one.

I had no say, did I? So I will have

to accept my life, but not my fork, my horns.

You might dare say: “The death of evil’s roots!”

So I will sit and watch the dying day.

And yes, the sunsets are spectacular,

you pompous hack. I ask: You happy now?

(2001)

Loki Bound

It drips so slow. It burns my face.  The pain

is so unbearable. The snake even grins

at me.  My son’s entrails replace the chain

that holds my arms, my legs, until my kin

begin the final fight.  The fight where I 

will die. It is inscribed in stone, it does

not matter what I try to do, I’ll die.

They said this is my punishment. It was

so long ago. Who wants eternal pain?

I want to scream and cry out at my wife:

unleash me now! But how can I have gain!

My blight will end, and then so will my life!

How can I live with my own death foretold?

How can I die without a life at all?

(2001)