Antigone
This poem is written after Sophocles' play Antigone. If you want to read a summary of the play first, try here. Anything on the left is narrative, the centred stanzas are the character herself. Not that you wouldn't have figured that out reading it.
The sky was falling
angry rain beating against the trees
Antigone was a small shadow
carrying a spade through the night.
Softly! I whispered, the only one
to hear. My brother’s armoured body
prostrate on the ground,
washed clean by the rain.
My arms are not so strong;
Would Ismene had helped me
I could finish the deed.
Sprinkle dirt over the warrior,
gods willing, I shall come tomorrow.
She lived the next day
with a nervous twitching,
and no-one could understand
her short attention.
I remember Haimon came to talk
a while, as eager for our wedding
as I for the twilight.
The idea of this marriage chilled me
daughter of a cursed king.
Would not the city fear me
so close to the throne,
blood soaking my very shadow?
By dusk I felt like a restless horse,
champing my bit, waiting
waiting for the night.
She crept again, through darkness
the ground wet with rain
of the day before.
The full moon spied a silhouette
of a watcher on the grave.
He grabbed me from behind,
sentry of my uncle’s house.
My blindly-weilded spade was useless
and I kicked a last dusting on my
brother as I was dragged away.
Antigone came before Creon
The palace stones were cold,
uncomforting to hands that trembled
without knowing why. She stood,
a miniature Prometheus,
without fire before thundering Zeus.
King of another world,
you threaten me with a fate
that has clutched me in bony hand
for longer than you have ruled.
I am not afraid of death.
The gods of hell have a strong hold:
My mother, father, brothers.
Their hands reach out to me,
beckoning. This “betrayal”
is no slight on you--
Lord of a cursed city
needs no spite. The gods
are now my only rulers
it is their law I obey.
Thunderous king, who does not
understand.
We see each other in the night,
silent wraiths each on our own errands,
seeing and never touching.
Creon sentenced her to death,
and a chill fell on her.
She waited in the dark,
but did not cry.
I knew Haimon had gone
to speak. The lovers’ breeze
cannot best the thunder,
and I knew as well
I would still die.
No hope left in me, but
no desire for life either,
I waited only for the end.
They left her in a stone vault
alone, equipped with water and food
she knew she would not eat.
When they closed the door
I thought I could hear
Polynices calling, waiting
for me. Do not make him
wait too long. I will come.
I hung my veil from my tomb,
and whispered a quiet prayer--
Farewell, old king, may you not pay
too dearly, for you are only
a vessel chosen by Fortune.
My love, whom I could
never have joined in this life,
for I have not been of this world.
My brother, wait for me!
do not grow impatient.
I am coming.
c.K.R.L. Kapphahn 1992
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