This poem was written in response to a final prompt in my Core class regarding myth, memory, and origin stories. Taking some classic origin stories, I translated them to show the growth society has made since these origins, and to show how we create our own origin stories every single day.
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in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth
then, surveying the kingdom of man,
the missing piece between divine and the earth,
he called it good
but when there is a (free) will, there is a way
what good is good without something to compare it to, anyway?
if knowledge is power, then suffering, surely, is power, as well
if ignorance is bliss, then surely, this paradise is ignorance
and adam, baby, i’d rather live a million years in powerful pain
than another day of blissful stupidity as a pain in your side
i’m not looking for ‘good’ any longer - no, i’m looking for so much more than that
i am the mother of all living things, and i make my own meaning
how do you like them apples?
aeneas,
pious, devout aeneas
traveled across land and sea,
looking for rome in all the wrong places
searching for troy, but let’s be real:
you can’t spell glory without troy,
(minus a ‘t’ and a desire for the private)
look forward, roman, and see what is to come approaching
there, on the horizon - a new world, a world that is yours to create
with the gods (sort of) on his side,
both law and the outlook for brave aeneas is positive
have you heard the buzz?
sartre says, speaking satirically
flurries of feigning furies as flies fester furiously
for our guilt is not ours to bear, merely libations to atone
for actions for which only the divine can attest
call me electra, because only god can judge me
i shall throw my feet at the god of zeus, for the guilt is electrifying
i swear on the grave of my mother that it won’t happen again -
oops, did i say that?
or perhaps, sartre suggests, seeking some semblance of sense in these stories,
the true hero here is orestes, he who seeks no atonement,
but bears a legacy of his family’s violence, perpetuated in his own actions,
taking on the weight of all the flies so that others may see their own culpability
at the end of the day, your true accountability lies within yourself,
and attempting to divine meaning is an excuse to deny yourself the radical self acceptance
that we, as humans, all deserve
when discussing origin stories,
the true myth lies where we pretend that we do not create our own origins
not just once, by some old guy pondering by a river a thousand or so years ago, but every single day
as society changes, so does the context from whence we came
we, as individuals, have the opportunity every moment we exist to create origin stories within ourselves, to expand our cosmological understanding -
to allow ourselves to be the hero of our own journey
to find meaning where we used to see ‘good’
to find that which is waiting for us on the horizon, if we can just stop looking backwards
to find the free will that makes us inherently human, and the responsibility that comes with the actions we take
our origin is what we make it - so this time around, let’s make it a good one.
