Antigone Hangs Herself with Her Bridal Veil

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

The audience desires a swollen purge,

Says Aristotle.  In the tragic mode

The people want the playwright’s tricks to urge

To a grander feeling than life’s code

Can muster.  They require religion to

Unravel and to ravel through their ears

And eyes the souls inside them, what is true

And almost true among their fears

And weeping hope.  Guts want their wailing facts

To grab heads by the hair and haul their brains

On washboards of emotion.  Hearts want acts

Of heroes cleansing inner human stains.

  We want the bravery of decision shot

     Through veins, no matter if a blade hurts, hot.

© Phillip Whidden