The Five Rivers Theme Park

We couldn’t decide if the Danaids appeared menacing
without their daggers or simply sad—forever filling up
					   their leaky jars.
And the multitudes of dead—those without coins
beneath their tongues for Charon—didn’t wail so much
as simply bicker.

And even the fires along the River Styx barely bubbled,
and only one of three heads of Cerberus
					      bared its teeth.
And though the tour guide told a rousing tale of Achilles
washing away most all of his mortality—we know what
little good that did him in the end.

And someone said that Heracles might make a cameo appearance.
But apparently he was sidetracked on the River Lethe and
						      so forgot.
And naturally it was disappointing that the Sisyphus, on a break,
simply leaned against his rock, announcing as we passed
that the Elysian were closed for repairs.

Doug Ramspeck