Today's poem is by Maggie Dietz

Cerberus
       

One mouth eats the hand that feeds it.
One tongue soothes and binds a wound.
One mouth oozes its forever hunger

Into a moonless river. One nose scents
The trails of specters, one flares toward
Every fleck of meat, one lifts only

When the icy air unfurls ambrosia.
One throat growls fire, another
Thirst. One jowl revs, another wilts.

One jaw commands a phalanx of
Fangs, and one surrenders its catch.
Two ears are pricked for whips

And two for hooves. One furred
Muzzle drips limbs from its hinges,
One has never seen a seed of blood.

One nape cranes toward a caress,
One chokes against its ruff of chains,
One swans into uneasy sleep.

One mind is ever somewhere else,
One flushes pheasants in its dreams,
One rages in its cave of bone.

One body bears it all.

Copyright © 2024 Maggie Dietz All rights reserved
from AGNI
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission