Lunchtime with the Gods

a poem about gods and food.

The lonesome sardine darted through the calm ocean as the midday 

sun made the sardine glow like a knife made from stainless steel.

26 seconds latter the sardine is caught by an old Greek man

 with a big grey moustache. He guts and descales the

 fish; he cuts out two shiny fillets, wipes

 the knife on his dirty trousers 

and then chucks the carcass 

of the sardine back to

 where it  was 

born.

As the old man chews on the raw oily fish, the ferocious heat from the sun continues to stream down on to the small boat. The heat was so intense that the man felt like he was being pricked by a thousand and one tiny needles, while buckets of liquid metal was being poured over his shoulders.

The fish tasted of a mix of life and death combined. He then takes a piece 

of crusty bread in his hand and dips it into a small bowl of 

extra virgin olive oil; the bread soaks up the

 golden green liquid. The man happily 

eats his fish, bread and 

oil with a glow of 

radiance beaming

 form his 

eyes.

Poseidon sits content in his underwater cave. The walls are covered with hundreds of silver pearls; an eerie milky light penetrates out from the entrance of the cave and dissolves into the dark void of the ocean. Poseidon chews on slimy dark green kelp and scoops out saffron coloured sea urchins out of their shells with his index finger. The taste of iodine erupts onto his tongue as he swallows the sea urchins. Hundreds of plankton swim through his long wavy hair, a small 

crab crawls out of his right nostril. Poseidon looks up at old fishing 

boat floating on the still surface of the sea.

Small sweat droplets occasionally fell from the old 

mans bushy eyebrows like pinecones descending

 from their branches. One sweat droplet looked

 like a huge teardrop as it leisurely rolled 

down the man’s neck and melted

 into his hairy grey

  chest.

He grabbed a bottle of red wine from under the shade of his seat and 

drank the cool, tart liquid with joy and contentment. He put 

the bottle down and stroked his brittle moustache with his

 index finger and thumb. He then wiped his 

wet forehead with the back of his hand

 and with an expression of curiosity

 spread across his face he gazes

  into the bright blue-sky 

overhead.

Zeus looks down at the old man in the fishing boat while crunching on pomegranate seeds. Zeus then wipes the red juices away from his mouth, picks up a chalice full of frothy beer and swallows the golden liquid in one go. Zeus picks a few black grapes from a vine dangling over his shoulder, he then combs his longs sliver beard very slowly with delicate oyster shells.

The old Greek man dabbed his golden baldhead 

with a napkin while the skeleton of 

the sardine slowly floats

 down towards the 

seabed like a

 lost feather

 never to

 be seen

 again.

Reviews

[TawnyBlueStar]

This is wonderful! The mix of man and gods :) and the description is so creative that I could picture it playing out in front of me - which is brilliant, and what makes me love stories and poems that are able to do that :D
As always, I love reading your work. thank you for sharing this, amazing! :D

[Aarontastic]

I really liked this one. You had a great opening stanza, probably my favorite one in the whole poem because of the memorable imagery, and I also admire the symmetry and structure of the rest of the poem. The juxtaposition of the Greek man and the old gods of that country provokes one to think of the 'divinity' all around us, figuratively and literally. How amusing to think about this fisherman going about his day, completely ignorant that the very gods have taken notice of him. It's kind of absurd and profound all at the same time, but most of all, it's amusing and fun to read. The ending of the poem, with the sardine corpse floating away, is a strong note of finality, although if there is allegory here I am sadly missing it :(

[LJW]

This is decidedly different. Intensely clear imagery.

It was cool how the stanzas about the man inthe boat were shaped like boats. Very cool. The shape of the last stanza resembled a funnel, spiriting that sardine skeleton to the ocean deep.

[SHEEMA HUQ]

Soaring with intense detail and you have depicted watery scenes so powerfully, nice work.

[rabbit]

I love this so much. The formation is beautiful. the imagery is vivid, with a few basic grammar mistakes. The parallels that are drawn here are absolutely beautiful. I'm in lvoe with this!

[Ruth]

Luke...you maintain a power through your work that is special...you feel your way through the vision, the words, emotion...
Always damn good to read you dear friend! xox

[R.A. Youngblood]

F**k logic! xD jk, Well, this is so creative and descriptive, it took me to a lot of different places. It makes me smile. Enjoyful!
Thanks for sharing..Keep it up! :D

[Alexis suzzanne]

beautiful imagery you know your a poet when you can feel the water in the ocean against your fingers as you type and the rush of the open see from your fingers to your toes. Very very well done and i agree the logic is something that most poets need . It shows that we might still have some hope for this world that is slowly falling to the end.

[Leslie Philibert]

This is very good, the fishing theme reminds me of Ernest Hemingway, and the mix with Greek mythology combined with fine writing makes this work well. So congratulations on a fine piece of writing.

[Aly Jones]

I love the style this was written in, the design. Very tasteful with the way things were worded. It's a very excellent piece indeed, and hopefully I will stumble upon more of your works, if they are in a much similar style to this.

I love the storyline, and how it shows the similarities and differences between us and the Gods. I also like how you didn't just show Poseidon, like I had expected, but also showed Zeus. That was a pleasant surprise.

I only found one minor error, if you can even call it that much:

"The fish tasted of a mix of life and death combined. He then takes a piece
of crusty bread in his hand and dips it into a small bowl of
extra virgin olive oil; the bread soaks up the
golden green liquid. The man happily
eats his fish, bread and
oil with a glow of
radiance beaming
FORM his
eyes."

I do believe the capitalized word is meant to be FROM. If not, then please beg my pardon.

Thank you for sharing this magnificent piece with me. :)