A Cock For Asclepius

[bena]

Thank you for your comment.  Yes, I'm aware hemlock is a poison -- hence the title, which is an allusion to the last words of Socrates.  The second stanza will probably make no sense if you haven't read The Republic -- again, Socrates via Plato.  It's the allegory of the cave -- ignorant folk who believe themselves enlightened, watching shadows on the wall of their cave and believing that they are seeing the whole world.  It's worth a read.

I'm afraid I've read it several times and, with a careful editor's eye -- aware that people don't live in my head -- I still feel there are sufficient keys.

mmmm yummy yummy allegory.  I probably should repost mine, it has all that inside-my-own-head crazy person feel.

Yours is fanatically superior.  There is one sentence that bothers me (Gramma speakin):


You follow fire

and soot its crackling, shadow
strings upon the wall.

I know you are using soot as a verb, but it took me several times reading to figure that out.  Perhaps I was being ignorant....it's been known to happen.


mel.