Nemesis

The god from the past came stalking,

Came clambering over the hill,

He’d woken first thing in the morning

With a hangover, fit to chill,

Those Roman debauches with grapes and wine,

The reds and the whites of the Tuscan kind,

The fruit of an overburdened vine,

Were sapping his energy still.

 

He’d rubbed at his eyes in the dawning,

And wondered where everyone went,

For nothing remained of the Roman baths

Not even a soldier’s tent,

And where was the maiden he’d last embraced

The sweet  Lucina, so fair of face,

Whose long held virtue was laid to waste

When the force of his love was spent.

 

Invidia’s green and brooding eyes

Had watched as he laid her down,

Had mixed her potions to match his lies

As they struggled, there on the ground.

She thought, ‘No god should be so remiss

As to offer a rival a tainted kiss,

From now, I’ll act as his Nemesis,

He’ll sleep while the world turns round.

 

She poured him a draught of her potion then

The last of his thirst to slake,

Though Empires rose and fell again

She vowed that he’d never wake.

The buildings crumbled and turned to dust

As the god dreamt long of his love, and lust,

While Nemesis thought her scheme was just

And the field turned into a lake.

 

The ages tired and the gods retired

To their mansions, high on the mount,

But he continued to sleep and dream

More years than he could count,

The god slept through in a dream sublime

While generations were buried in lime,

Two thousand years was a blink in time

For the gods in their banishment.

 

He woke on a chilly Autumn day

And found himself in a lake,

Shivered once, and then strode away

For his heart had begun to ache,

He walked down into a valley plain

Green and fresh in the Autumn rain,

When out of a tunnel streamed a train

With a scream, and the squeal of brakes.

 

‘By Juvenal!’ cried the god in shock

As the carriages streamed on by,

Then up above, like a giant gnat

A vehicle flew in the sky.

‘The world has changed since I fell asleep

The gods have fled to the mountain keep,

And men have conjured a giant leap,

The world has passed us by!’

 

He ran headlong through the tunnel

Hoping to find Lucina again,

And that was the great explosion that

Nobody could explain.

The diesel engine was rendered flat

With carriages piled on top of that,

While Nemesis on the mountain sat

Her tears flowing like rain!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Casey gave you a wonderful review, and nothing I could say could begin to top that. Suffice it to say, this is another wonderful story in verse. I love the mythological references, and I also love the shift in rhyme scheme in this one.

Love, as always.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Another great story David! :-)

[Baby Ricochet]

Wow! That was a great story Mr Paget. I loved the ending of an old school Roman deity running down a tunnel to collide with a train. Outstanding work sir!

[KeelyJane]

Nice pen. I admire your ability to take pieces of history, fancy it up with imagery and then bring it to the present. All while maintaining great meter and rhyme. Masterfully penned. You are one of the greats.

[Marie]

A great and tragic story. Nemesis had much to repent. I'll remember her next tme it rains.

[Lena M. P.]

You masterfully mixed lore with history then brought both to the present. I admired how the passage of time changed the emotion of the poem and how she cried in the end for her part in the tragedy. Nicely penned.

[Tomahawk Joe]

An interesting poem with a pleasing cadence

[SyberRose]

This is another one of your masterpieces to behold David....Each stanza compliments the next...Loved it from beginning to end...and of course your signature flow and rhythm makes it fun to read...Rose:)