Melpomene in Ecstasy
by Jamie Joy Gatto
 A Litany for The Muse of Tragedy
 by Jamie Joy Gatto
 

 She walks in wondrous fields of calla lilies singing,
 Mourning the Death of yet another Love.
 When love fails sadly, no Siren's song is sweeter;
 The Muse is in her glory.

 Melpomene is in ecstasy.

 And with her dagger she carves the mark 
 Upon wicked hearts of men whose lies fall 
 Upon ears of faithful lovers, 
 Lovers lying only to themselves.

 To protect the lies, the pleaselings do not see 
 The trace of blood that spills
 So clearly from breast pockets,
 Flowing from those ancient, Wicked hearts.

 Sex, lies, mendacity.

 Melpomene is in ecstasy.

 And when in death a love is lost for all eternity,
 Tears fall furious until they pool, 
 Lingering in the nether-place, 
 Tamped down by lips and eyes pressed closed.

 No one cares to feel the sorrow growing in the gut,
 Festering in the heart for longer than one lifetime.

 Melpomene is in ecstasy.

 And just as Sartre fell disloyal to Simone, 
 Proof from feathered pen upon the parchment 
 to another, younger love, 
 As Romeo and Juliet fell dead unto the temptress Fate,
 And Madame Bovary died in the cold, alone,

 Melpomene, too found ecstasy. 

Dionysus left her hungry cunt and aching heart to suffer alone 
 With dawn fast breaking through ripening orchards.
 She tore fistfuls of fruit, enraged, enraptured,
 Beat her chest raw in abandoned glee,
 Sobbed as sticky nectar clung to bare breasts.

 Oh, to fall in love with a man more endeared to his drink 
 than to his Muse.

 Melpomene? Do you weep?

 Melpomene is in ecstasy. Amen.



Copyright 2000, 2001 Jamie Joy Gatto. All Rights Reserved. 
May not be re-printed in any form without express written consent of the author.

Back to Poetry