The Impresario (part eight)

The Impresario

Part Eight

Tortu has done no wrong

He lays his lute upon the ground and plucks

A melancholic melody with his toes

A lilting air flutes o’er this, as serpentine

In play of arms and sway of hips

The Pythoness begins her dance

He cannot bring himself to it

His lips form the D of Delphi, there he falters

The impresario coughs once more and leaves her

Turning to his hearers strains to gather

to mind the Dauphin’s verses…she is not

A deformity, a creature

Scales reptilian peeling from her skin

It will surprise the Dauphin to hear himself

Called too soon.

He has done her a cruelty…many such

And cannot extricate a foot

She smiles still. Perhaps she smiles to please him.

But her eyes are bright with pain, as the impresario collects himself

And speaks again.

“Friends!

Mariners tell this tale

How the Sovereign of the Sea

When a man cast to the swells he hears

Importune piteously

Dispatches he to buoy him

If he deserve this grace

A messenger to guide him

To a warm and sheltering place”

Impresario

Part Nine

(2017, Stephanie Foster)