Artemis - Pete Gioconda

Artemis

The promise of eternal youth
turns to the broken pledge of old age.
Time flies and to the best of my ability
I try to write things down;
but the Great Recording Angel
I feel would like me to spell it all out
and scratch it on the surface
where God could hardly find it.

Highbrowed on the ocean,
Artemis is holding fort
(Yes, there’s sea on land)
and here I ask the High Priestess
of existentialism for a quotation,
free of charge and without obligation.
To which she replies, hard of heart:
“You don’t have to live for the moment.”

Bewildered still
in the face of supercilion
I put a further question.
She says: “You’d better buy a butterfly,
to watch it flit and take decisions ~
haul the world from chains
or all the world’s a stage.”
I tweak her nose and watch it grow.