Rivers V
- Imogen Marshall
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Swear by my waters
all hopes
and prayers
the pinky promise of young hands
the dearest oath of the pious
to placate
to assure
I care not for.
May the deceivers drown
The mean-wellers lament.
The follow-uppers resent.
Swear by my waters
it’s only your breath.
I offer you a drink.
Cheers to the memories!
What memory?
Footprints in the sand
washed clean by waves.
Lifelines swept away in the weave.
However large
or mundane,
I consume, so let troubles wane.
Take the drink.
Never rethink.
I will take your tears.
The trickle of one tear joins
the tide of thousands.
Screeching owls fly above
and wailing foxes scratch glacial shores.
Scream the age-old scream,
grieve the course of every grieving soul.
I will let you sink beneath
and mute your manic yells.
Join the screaming streams.
No relief from my riptide.
All shall abide.
Sail across with the ferryman,
yet my waters always swell.
Jagged rocks take blood,
and lungs ache with the last breath.
Though some can swim,
few can win.
The hottest blaze appears so cold.
Tempts you–feel my flickering flame.
Wash you in my roaring warmth.
Smoulders on the banks,
sands turn to glass.
Blue swirls feed
on the greed.
A fire for a fire.
Raging fire.
Thirsting fire.
Desire my fire but burn by my flames.
Come to the place where all rivers lead.
Writer's Notes
I was inspired by the five rivers of the underworld in ancient Roman/Greek mythology. Each stanza gives a ‘voice’ to a different river.
The first stanza emulates the river Styx–the most familiar underworld river. It is conspicuous for being the entity for which gods and mortals swear binding oaths to.
We proceed to the voice of the Lethe. Drinking from the waters of the Lethe removed memories so one could lavish in Elysium (paradise) without recollections of their previous life.
Then to the River Cocytus–the river of lamentation. The nature imagery highlights the ubiquitous quality of grief and sorrow; it even transcends humanity.
The Acheron is often seen as the main river of the underworld. The ‘ferryman’ references Charon. The Acheron is the river of pain. The implication that you can swim across offers hope, but this is at Charon’s discretion (usually dependent on payment), and thus the hope is slim and you can’t ‘win’. This also connects to the idea of persevering through pain, but ultimately offers a pessimistic conclusion.
Finally, the Phlegethon is the river of fire. This encompasses all aspects of fire: both its connotations of desire and temptation, as well as its capacity for warmth, but with the threat of destruction.
The final line is a call to dead souls, to at last enter the underworld.
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