The verses self-conceived in my mind like Athena from the skull of Zeus

have become stillborn on my muse-deserted lips,

their fragile forms memorialized on the shallow grave of the page.

My stanzas were once like nitroglycerin bombs—

tiny little explosives of lush liquid language in bejeweled boxes that set blind desire down

a tortuous route of wolfish hunger that knows no glut.

My words were once a call to arms that boiled the blood of revolutionaries to spill

with the guillotine blade of progress that of those who dared not dream the impossible

dream of the Republic and declare liberty, equality, fraternity the unalienable rights of all men.

But now the leaves of the laurel crown that adorns my head

are scattered across the over-cultivated fields behind me, their brittle bodies

slowly decomposing into embers and ash, accelerants ready to make a holocaust

of the harvest of poems past, pointing to a less fertile path before me

decked with early frost exposing the revelation that the harsh, tiring winters yet to come

have been purchased at the price of a terminal number

of passion-drenched springs and summers.

Dominick Montalto is founder of A Poet's Perspective, a blog featuring biweekly blog posts on a variety of topics, primarily geared toward writers and those interested in getting their work published, including weekly reviews on Wednesdays. The blog features an Editorial and Writing Services page where readers can take a look at the type of services Dominick offers, and also has a variety of his previously published poetry and essays.