Ophelia's Muse Poetry by Jamie Joy Gatto

A Litany for the Muse of Tragedy
by Jamie Joy Gatto

...
She walks in wondrous fields of calla lilies singing,
Mourning the Death of yet another Love.
When love fails sadly, no Siren's song is sweeter;
The Muse is in her glory.

Melpomene is in ecstasy.

And with her dagger she carves the mark
Upon wicked hearts of men whose lies fall
Upon ears of faithful lovers,
Lovers lying only to themselves.

To protect the lies, the pleaselings do not see
The trace of blood that spills
So clearly from breast pockets,
Flowing from those ancient, Wicked hearts.

Sex, lies, mendacity.

Melpomene is in ecstasy.

And when in death a love is lost for all eternity,
Tears fall furious until they pool,
Lingering in the nether-place,
Tamped down by lips and eyes pressed closed.

No one cares to feel the sorrow growing in the gut,
Festering in the heart for longer than one lifetime.

Melpomene is in ecstasy.

And just as Sartre fell disloyal to Simone,
Proof from feathered pen upon the parchment
to another, younger love,
As Romeo and Juliet fell dead unto the temptress Fate,
And Madame Bovary died in the cold, alone,

Melpomene, too found ecstasy.

Dionysus left her hungry cunt and aching heart to suffer alone
With dawn fast breaking through ripening orchards.
She tore fistfuls of fruit, enraged, enraptured,
Beat her chest raw in abandoned glee,
Sobbed as sticky nectar clung to bare breasts.

Oh, to fall in love with a man more endeared to his drink
than to his Muse.

Melpomene? Do you weep?

Melpomene is in ecstasy. Amen.
...

Jamie Joy Gatto is a sex writer, editor and bisexual activist from New Orleans. She is editor-in-chief of MindCaviar. Her work has and will appear in numerous projects including The Unmade Bed, Best Bisexual Erotica 2000-2001, Best SM Erotica, Unlimited Desires, Guilty Pleasures, Love Shook My Heart II and Black Sheets.

Her first collection of short fiction, Sex Noir: Stories of Sex, Death and Loss, is published by Circlet Press.

"Gatto's tales range from sexy to harrowing, from tragic to optimistic, and from hardcore to sugary sweet-- sometimes all within the same story." ~ AVN

Click on the book to learn more about Jamie Joy Gatto's collection of dark & often tragic erotica, Sex Noir.

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Ophelia's Muse Established 05.01