MY POOR PARTY OR BACCHIC MISINTERPRETATION
   

by Luke Csehak

the partying of the gods
has not yet been thoroughly tested
 
the grapes have proved sarcastic enough
of this much we can be sure
 
but their beards
though dewy and over-ripe
with music
 
have often been cited as "pretentiously cruel"
and "irresponsibly absurd"
 
not so much in their depravity
which is generally considered
a sort of over-ambitious authenticity
 
but in the way that those beards thrill
over filling the mouths of children
and other innocents
with desolation and attitudes of futility
 
there is also the matter of all those decadent lakes
they are forever fondling
and tossing over their shoulders
like so many grains of salt
 
which are not so much problematic
but admittedly suspicious
in the way they are always
beginning over an over again
 
making them very difficult to study
with a great deal of empiricism
 
furthermore, it has been shown
that the decadence of the lakes
encourages such a sense of textile longing
 
that any findings that are made
are deemed biased
 
even so, this divine excess
would probably never have come under question
if it had not have been for their hooves
which looked realistic enough from a distance
 
but under closer inspection
were found to be made of finely crafted layers of
glass interspersed with derision
 
the gods scoff at their detractors
with a violent flourish of blood an phosphorous
and invariably return to the
"aesthetic importance of lying"
 
they offer them grapes
and refer again to the decadence of their lakes
hoping to appeal to their textile longing
 
when the mortals seem put off by this gaudy display
the gods resort to insulting their poor looks
 
but it seems mortals are no longer so easily swayed
 
the gods, now alone
repose in the twilight of their "perfect hours"
with a mask and an empty bottle of wine
 
as they contemplate their uncertain futures.