opal jasper, #16: poem 2

[sunfright]

Title: POEM 2
Author: S. / sunfright
Color: Opal Jasper, #16: crown and country.
Styles & supplies: Panorama, gesso, resin.
Story: Polyanaktides
Wordcount: ~250
Rating: Gen
Warnings: N/A.
Summary: Imagine it was Gorgo's poetry that survived the ages, rather than Sappho's, exhibit two.

POEM 2



It is time for plentiful libations, I bring honey and milk in jars
To the temple, my hair shrouded according to my stations.
Above my head, the day has done away with your stars,
Your head, queen of gods, is decorated with a diadem
That signifies structure in all creation’s mayhem.
Women, by order of your protector, be safe!


As marriage regulations dictate, I veil the ebony of my hair,
And since your decrees in the matters of the hearth predate
Anyone who may now that signifying veil don and wear,
You, queen, teaches us to carry it with pride like a crown.
A wife is no servant, she needs not lower her head down.
Women, by order of your protector, be free!


The milk is poured, the honey burned, Hera’s blessings given
To the libation-bringer who with her patron is concerned.
‘Queen of gods, let my marriage continue to thriven,’
I pray under the cover of my veil and a mutter of breath
That only Pluton and dreaded Persephone can taketh.
Women, by order of your protector, be brave!


I muse as I leave the temple where merely smoke remains:
At these uncertain times we, sisters, are called to assemble,
So together we can harvest honour like yield of our pains.
‘I thank you, queen, for this lesson to be firmly reminded,’
I tell the skies behind whose curtain the stars are binded.
Women, by order of your protector, be strong!