Poetry

By

Sunil Sharma

Cerberus

The immortal Cerberus lives on

In collective unconscious;

The three-headed dog

With a mane of snakes and a serpent’s tail

And lion’s claws,

This fearsome guardian of the gates of the Hades

Ensuring spirits of the dead enter but do not leave

The dreaded Underworld of the Greeks and Romans.

Homer talked of him,

So did Hesiod, Virgil and Dante in his allegory

Orpheus and Heracles met the hell hound and could

Survive to tell the tale to a stunned audience kept awake

On hoary nights no longer seen.

Cerberus ensured continuity in a tough age

A quick transition to afterlife in an alien land

Full of rolling mists and full of sadness for the ghosts

Longing for terrestrial life and family,

A watchdog loyally standing guard for the gloomy and dull property

At the entry reached crossing the River Styx,

For his master who provoked fear in mortals

Thus separating the living from the dead.

These days, post-modern world, overpopulated

Filled with hate and ethnic strife, bombs and terror attacks

The faithful Cerberus guards the bungalows and factories of the rich

With equal aplomb, this time with a single head,

The only transformation across the eras is that we all are

Inhabiting in a live and not some mythical hell!

Sunil Sharma

An English teacher with more than 23 years of degree-college teaching experience that includes administrative one (as vice-principal and now as full-fledged principal); freelance journalist with 15 years experience writing for the supplements of the Times of India, Mumbai, India and a widely-published bi-lingual writer, poet, novelist, interviewer, blogger, reviewer and literary editor.