Ευνίκη (Eunike)

Eunike

The honorable senator of Rome
Petronius, a handsome man of wealth
for whom the poets kept respectful gnome,
that contemplated about the State's good health
like God was worshiped by the sightly maid
- Eunike; whose devotion was unpaid.

Unanswered her obedience and love,
uncherished were and, thus, transformed to pain;
tormented her young senses, made her rove,
- alone confessed, her flesh needs to abstain
- his handsome thus admired and marble bust,
apprised her instincts, highborn and robust.

Evincible, unrequited pleas,
the maid exalted to the sovereign sire,
his despotism she served just to reprise,
thus punished by the whip for her desire,
accepts the lashes whispering his name
with deponent her dedicated flame.

The punisher was ordered to beware;
not to cause scathes upon her perfect skin;
her sire's ingratitude could not forswear
the burning tears she shed, for was a sin
to disobey her master's potent will
- infusing lashes deftly to instil.

Alone, Eunike, stares at his stone bust;
his handsomeness could cause a sun's eclipse;
oh, may the Fates, milleflorus, entrust
their gifts upon his brow and much loved lips;
her arms embracing him, the maid's face couth,
shall osculate the marble bust's cold mouth.

© 09-07-2013, G. Venetopoulos, All rights reserved
(5 sextains, sestines or sestinas - Iambic pentameter)

Zuzuni on the badlands

Zuzuni on the badlands

Montana's muddy badlands spread for thirty seven miles
along a cleft of sandstone bed, eroded years before;
the chestnut paced upon the grass and well worn aisles
and I wore two new Walker Colts, of gauging forty four
beneath the noon light that defines but also eyes beguiles.

An anchorite, some years ago, upon the ridge of Grapes
where monasteries in the clouds are reaching out to God,
I learned to draw and shoot amidst the fog's white waving drapes
and prayed until the time was ripe to abandon this abode,
cause solitude was molding deeds, constringing, thus, escapes.

I saw them waiting on the trail; three bandits stood apart:
Coyote Chit, Cheesecake Labif and Mambo-Jumbo Crock
with cross-tied low their pistols stood, assumptive and upstart
bemocking fools who patented their e'er noetic block
that teachers, tho', could not explain; not even wise Descartes!

My shots intended at their guns, the hoisted hammers broke
I ordered them to start the dance that turns the clouds to rain
the land was in compelling need, as turf and plants evoked
the sympathy of Heavens that magnanimous ordained
the good ol' boys (and volunteers) to dance the rain's refrain.

Coyote was allowed to dance a prominent gavotte
meanwhile Labif's romantic soul preferred a marigold
but Crock's mazurka hence untied the nimbus' Gordian knot
and rain began to pour upon those who the skies extolled
heroic men were meant to be, defining, thus, a blot.

Zuzuni, the Algonquin chief, had noticed this ordeal
and marveled at the outlaws forms, that caused the skies to rain
in order so, to buy the fools he offered a good deal
fourteen strong horses for each man, who danced to ascertain
that rains returned upon the slopes and also on the plains.

© 2014-10-15, G. Venetopoulos, All Rights Reserved

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/zuzuni-on-the-badlands-2/
(Iambic heptameter)

Loula

Loula

The herd was bleating and moreover grinned
while the romantic shepherd played his flute;
had never seen another femme as cute
as timid Loula, whirling in the wind.

His drunken goats were prancing on the grass,
upon the greenest fields where poppies bloomed,
with senses onerous and kinda fumed,
amid the blooms were listening to brass.

While in the sheep-cots, on the mountain glens,
the shepherds played woodwinds, forever skilled,
he heard the baaing of his flock and reeled
verse pastoral in his Mercedes-Benz.

Hence, Loula, virtuous, appealed to rams
inducing rumination-cheering notes
and soon, the drunken sheep and tripping goats
the shepherd's dance convoyed, with flutes and drums.

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/loula/