Prometheus Fires Back
By Victor Howes
Do people think that vultures eat my liver
High in the mountains, that there is a cliff
Where Zeus chains me, Prometheus, forever?
What dear departed dimwit dreamed that myth?
Do people think I stole some Zippo lighter,
And smuggled fire to men from Mount Olympus?
The truth makes someone look a trifle brighter
If not the A+ genius of the campus:
One of your forebears fished a glowing coal
Out of a forest fire and fanned the flame
It proved a useful servant, in control:
A demon when let loose. I bear no blame.
Zeus knows who filched his fire, who stole his thunder.
He’s waiting till you blow yourselves asunder.
From Thoughts after Spenser by Victor Howes. Cambridge: Harvard Book Store, 2016. Copyright © Victor Howes.