The End of Pyth
At the close sits Pyth the Suggester, erect.
A seat on the bridge which
Begins at a fixed point
And ends at nowhere in particular.
By any other name he is La Petite Voix,
And hissing, whispered soft certainties
On the benefits of fruit to one who welcomed
Persuasion.
It was on Pyth’s request that she begat Cain,
Who begat War,
Who begat Pain,
Who begat Fear and her brother Doubt,
Who together begat boredom,
Who begat the Pen,
The Violin, and the dying Left Hand,
Who begat Hope,
Who eventually was lost in a bed of flowers –
Snowdrops encircling a single white lily.
Pyth sat behind the judges,
Offering them hemlock to quell the
Outspoken mind.
He ripped the quill from the Bard’s decrepit claw,
And with the other hand , forced his famed face down into the
Two-tiered chocolate birthday cake.
The little red sweets, I’ve heard, were delectable.
Pyth the Defiler;
He loaded the bullet into Oswald’s gun.
He found the rocks for Mrs Woolf’s pockets.
He turned the dials on Sylvia’s furnace,
The eternal kiln for her Earthenware Head.
I pad silently towards the place where he sits,
Lily in hand.
My heart is hardened to this creature,
This Mercury who leads his quarry to death.
The lily drops over the rail,
Echo of a whisper.
Pyth turns; my eyes meet the space where his should be,
And I push,
He topples.
As the stool follows him over the edge
It becomes obvious to me:
Today I have killed nothing.
Published in the 2014 University of Reading Creative Arts Anthology – ‘Origami Warriors’
Pyth Makes a Joke
On the first day, God created light.
(And Pyth maintained the ancient night.)
On the second day He drew the Heavens.
(Pyth yawned.)
Day three, He parted land from sea, and planted shrub, and planted tree.
(And Pyth exclaimed, ‘What use to me is planting shrub and planting tree?
Whilst lounging on the beach.)
The fourth, God gave to Helios his chariot.
(And Pyth made eyes at his firm, golden buttocks.)
Day five, the fish in the sea, the birds in the air.
(But the Sun did not rise, Pyth was plaiting his hair.)
On the sixth day, beasts which walked on land,
Some with four legs, some with two.
(Pyth gave to man an extra leg –
A driving force with which to screw.)
The final day of the busiest week,
The culmination of His labour:
God to His chair, about to faint,
He asked from Pyth another favour,
‘See that what I’ve made is good,
‘Make David king and Jesus saviour.’
(Pyth watched the Father drift and doze,
Ant thought that what He’d made was bad,
But worry not, deceitful Pyth,
There’s fun and mischief to be had.)
Published in the 2014 University of Reading Creative Arts Anthology – ‘Origami Warriors’
Religious Capital
Pyth understood the irony of calling Him father,
Then designating Him genderless.
And slowly but surely
Pyth chipped away at the second tower of God’s capital until
He became him.
