THE RESCUERS

 

 

JACK

hamlet was a luckier haunted son:
his ghostly father carried extra gold---
more than the whispered donations charon
plucked from each final ferry's dead and cold---
and recrossed the contrary acheron,
whose fires would burn the rafts of mortal sticks,
and appeared in phantom form to beckon
a wronged prince to harbor the river styx.

my father standing in shallow water
swallowed his coins and drifted silently
ahead of me while i, stumbling after,
watched his last distance disappear again.

my vengeful hands have devoured this empty
coffin. poisoned swords won't ingest my pain.