Daphne Defiant

an indictment of Cupid

By Harper Lewis Published 3 months ago • Updated 3 months ago • 1 min read

stupid Cupid and your poison arrows

I see your vanity, cocking your bow at Apollo, knocking that gold-tipped arrow

and taking aim.

Fair return for insults, just ask Montresor,

though Fortunato, that slave to thirst, may falter sans bravado.

Cruelty you knew, having suffered the wounds of Venus requited.

In for a penny, in for a pound?

Couldn’t stop love’s hateful hurl, hastily injured another.

Had I offended, taken a stab at your pretense of romance and flowers?

animosity flowing through your bow, the heaviness helping my transformation,

my lovely metamorphosis, my need for it born of your

neurodivergence

taking the joke too far,

driving me to the river of my father’s protection,

freezing into freedom from the god of reason and intellect,

whom I loved until you chose me as your bullseye,

circled crimson as Mars

when you got the lead out.

Intrusive rhyme bothers me, except as a weapon.

Intertextuality is my passion.

Formalist/ New Critical are my guiding theories.

My words are mine, not a robot’s.

MA English literature, CofC

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