Cassandra — Gerry D. Goodwin
poetry ☆
poetry ☆
She clings to the doors
At the church of her youth,
Where the golden-haired sun god
Swore he’d show her the truth.
She’d get all the secrets,
He’d show her the way.
The cost? Almost nothing -
Something easy to pay.
But a hand on a hip,
Cream kiss on a thigh,
Her courage failed her,
The price was too high.
She escaped through the pews
Past saints’ upturned eyes,
But from the altar he’d marked her:
Truth teller of lies.
Past banner and signs,
Through the streets then she flew.
They just shook their heads
When she shouted “Me too!“
They ignore when she pleads,
But the meds give them peace;
Enough pills fill her gullet
And the lies finally cease.
She mutters and mumbles
When Paris brings home
A bride of somebody’s
A gift from Love’s throne.
She’s silent at last
When brave Hector leaves,
But her down-cast eyes
Reveal that she grieves.
When his body comes home
From the street where it lay,
She can’t manage a tear
To help wash blood away.
So she bangs on the door
Of the church of her youth -
The whole world is on fire,
But they don’t want her truth.
Now flames lick the steeple
And the silence? It roars.
No more banging now
From behind the barred doors.
When he later meets her,
As she knew that he would,
She won’t share the truth;
It can do them no good.
As her time finally comes
In a world far away,
When she welcomes the blade
To no god will she pray.
Gerry D. Goodwin is a writer and educator based in Texas, where he teaches high school English. His love for literature was nurtured by the women in his early life and he was largely impacted by the theatre, where he has volunteered, written, and directed for more than twenty-five years. In both his teaching and creative work, Goodwin is drawn to the enduring power of myth and the ways classical texts can be applied to questions of power, trauma, and the modern identity in contemporary life. When he is not teaching or writing, he takes care of three dogs and a gecko, is taken care of by a brilliant theatre teacher wife, and remains actively involved in community theatre and literary study.
