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Troy Casa

Sappho Spoke for the Heartbroken

We build distances,
winding footpaths,
intricate byways
for our mind’s secret furloughs.
I suppose
it’s here that we cleave
those once loved,
dance around and
misplace their images;
oddly litter the world
with our misshapen fruit.
When we find a byway back
through the gulf waters
of Kalloni, I realize that
Sappho has aptly Koined
all this bleeding for us,
maimed herself
like an iunx* tied to a wheel,
and to the Gods
offered our longings. 

 

* The iunx is said to have been a small, sexually rapacious bird that Greek men would tie on a wheel and then torture, in the hopes of filling the objects of their lust with burning, irresistible passion.