Thursday, April 14, 2011

NAPOWRIMO #14:
JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE PAGAN KING

For 2011's National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), Troy's Work Table is attempting to write thirty poems in thirty days without the help of writing prompts from other websites.

Many of these are still in some sort of draft stage, but that is the nature of the Work Table.

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JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE PAGAN KING

Wednesday, hump day, Odin’s day
the day that Fenris wolf humps his leg
and gnashes blood-flecked fangs at his good eye

the day that whale-breath Jörmungandr
world-serpent coils around his chest
twelve thousand times and constricts

the day that his bad eye, the missing eye
itches at the precise moment that his hands
are entangled with those snot-nosed

good-for-nothing godsons and their
frigid sister, his goddaughter Hel, calling forth
hordes of snow giants to battle him as well.

And later in the day...

It’s all reports from Hugin and Munin
of prayers from fisher-folk casting their nets
and warriors burning sacrifices in his name

about weirdings and wanderings
of his disciples through herds of reindeer
or across miles of monstrous whales

crushed together into schools
like sardines, forming new islands of flesh
moving southward across the vast ocean.

And much later...

He’s picking splinters of Ygdrassil
the world tree from the palms of his hands
when he attempted to rescue himself

from a self-induced hanging, a sacrifice
for the sake of true knowledge and once
he received it figured was better to stop then-and-there.

And then there are other gods to deal with...

The brash and out-of-control red-bearded
thunder god thrashing about the world
as though he were the only one that mattered

The giant-loving biggest pain-in-the-ass
trickster thief always willing to spin
something to save his own sorry skin

Both of them deserving a good pounding
or at least a couple of broken teeth
after a punch or two to the head.


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Copyright © 2011 by Troy's Work Table

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