Cerberus

by Claire Scott 

Look:
the three headed dog stands guard
snarling and snapping
serpent tail flashing
swollen tongues slobbering
toxic slime 

See:
no way to leave the past
terror clutching our throats
strangling fingers digging
like a dybbuk
an uncle’s hands, a neighbor’s knife

Living:
in a fathomless world
where singed words fester
and tarnished promises molder
in perpetual darkness
a locked closet, the stink of sweat

Heracles:
are you still there?
despite the fires, the famine
despite fallow fields and forgotten love
use your mighty fists to chain this beast
the way you did many centuries ago

Then:
we can hold the past up to the wind
hear the sound of stars
whose songs turn the world
and walk into a future
where dreams grow wings

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, and Healing Muse among other journals. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t.