**to Whom It May Concern** Poem by Alejandro Torres

Watch
The purple clouds
Dance together
In the midnight blue skies
And wonder
Whose holding
The paintbrush

Is Aphrodite sullen
Or Athena thoughtful
Is Aries planning war
Or Hephaestus forging
Or are you Little Goddess
Just dreaming

Could it be a nightmare
My existence
Sure seems to be
A million
Pardons and apologies
For being a plague
That can write

See your Little Brother
That cherub boy
Taunts me so
And will not let
Me go

Not to Tartarus
Or Elysium
Where all souls go
Though my place
I do not know

Could you speak to him
On my behalf
I’ve begged your mother
And simply
Heard her laugh

Tyranny and dictatorship
Your patrons
Only seem to know
But with time
My age begins
To show

My Queen
The cycles of the moon
Haven’t affected you
But I grow old
And like the roses
In your garden
I do wilt
In the snow

A misconception
From so long ago
I am only mortal
I do not posses
Your glow

Nor your heart
Or thoughts
So tell that little creature
To ready his bow
And change
The arrow

If I am to die alone
Then so be it
I’ll go
With so many things
Unknown

And maybe it’s for the best
For what good is there
In loving gold
When fate
Only feeds your heart
Stone

Take no offense
Little Queen
This oversight
Was not your own
But one
A mythology
In the making

Both arrows
Couldn’t have been gold
Such
Would have been a travesty
An oddity and miscalculation
Of epic proportions
We are
Apollo and Daphne
Yet
I do not shine

The next chance you get
Please
Equip that cherub demon
And correct the error
Of his ways
Let me go
In peace
Or pieces
Which ever
Works best

You won’t shed a tear
Nor even draw a breath
When the marksman
Has hit his target
And I have left

I’ve seen you do it
Plenty of times
One more won’t hurt
Only me
Like those two days in June
When I would’ve stayed
Had you asked me to

But the question
Died on your lips
Before it ever
Entered your mind
Now I beg of you
One more time

Toss it away
Burn it if you must
Four years
There was never
Any lust

Simply an emotion
I can’t control
Until my neural pathways
Disappear
Like I wish I could

I no long dream
In color
Just black and white wishes
Of things
That could have been

I do not ask
For salvation
Now a drastic change
Let’s simply follow our routine
But this spring
Don’t revive me


Let be death be sweet
Let that much mercy
I’ve never known
Be sweet
And should your heartbeat
Change my Little Goddess
Come find me

But till then
Break this hold
Your Gods have
Over me
Don’t breathe
Your seed ever eternal
Into me
Till the winds change
Along with the tide

I will forever be Pygmalion
After Galatea ran away
With the prince of her dreams
Miserable Amphitrite
Once your siren call
Is gone

Just let him know
This mortal
Can withstand it

No more