When the Harpy Killed a Witch

When the Harpy Killed a Witch

I saw St. Elmo's fire strike a witch up in the sky,
And saw the Pyrrhic victory of men who wondered why
Triton vented all his rage upon the Harpy's keel,
And Neptune rolled his mighty gut to knock each from his heel.

But Hecate felt the stitch
And jerked a violent twitch
When the Harpy killed a witch.

I heard the sailor sot who cried
"Minos judge me, now I've died."
With one last wail, "Oh I am dead."
Another sailor slammed his head.
To Morpheus his mind he lent,
In spasm twitching 'fore he went.

A pity how lives wax and wane,
I saw a sailor drown in vain.
Another sailor gave his best,
To pry red splinters from his chest,
His eyes, in vacant stare, bereft,
And still they stared when he had left.

Like a sledge came down the mast,
That at the witch a fire cast,
His death came quick, he didn't know,
Flattened by the hammer blow.
Another wished that he'd been sledged,
Instead of under cannon wedged.

Then I saw one seasoned seaman,
On the ratline, snug and dreamin'
For one moment he hung o'er the sea,
And then the next was falling free.
I saw a flare, the cook on fire,
Tongues of flame, a cackling choir.

The captain's dead upon the deck,
A twisted head, a broken neck.
All these souls, no coins to fix,
Their float upon the river Styx.
How angry then, will Charon be,
These sailors lack the ferry fee?

But Hecate felt the stitch
And jerked a violent twitch
When the Harpy killed a witch.

Have these sailors of the seas
Earned in full their ferry fees?
Will their bounty Plutus pay,
They killed a witch that wretched day.
Pity not to know their fate,
Will these dead sail through the gate?

But Hecate snubs the knaves
Sneers at their watery graves
Sunken ship beneath the waves.

I saw St. Elmo's fire strike a witch up in the sky,
And saw the Pyrrhic victory of men who had to die,
This tragic scene within my heart is etched indelibly
For I escaped the dire day, but they are lost at sea.




Harpy (the name of the ship in my poem.) - Greek Mythology. One of several loathsome, voracious monsters with the head and trunk of a woman and the tail, wings, and talons of a bird.

Saint El·mo's fire - A visible electric discharge on a pointed object, such as the mast of a ship or the wing of an airplane, during an electrical storm. Also called corposant. ETYMOLOGY: After Saint Elmo, fourth-century a.d. patron saint of sailors.

Pyr·rhic victory - A victory that is offset by staggering losses. ETYMOLOGY: After Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (306-302 and 297-272) who defeated the Romans at Heraclea (280) and Asculum (279) despite his own staggering losses.

Neptune - Roman Mythology. The god of water, later identified with the Greek Poseidon.

Triton - Greek Mythology. A god of the sea, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, portrayed as having the head and trunk of a man and the tail of a fish.

Minos - Greek Mythology. A king of Crete, the son of Zeus and Europa, who was made one of the three judges in the underworld after his death.

Morpheus - The god of dreams in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Hec·a·te or Hek·a·te (hek'-ah-tee) Greek Mythology. An ancient fertility goddess who later became associated with Persephone as queen of Hades and protector of witches.

Styx - Greek Mythology. The river across which the souls of the dead are ferried, one of the five rivers in Hades.

Char·on (kâr'-in) - Greek Mythology. The ferryman who conveyed the dead to Hades over the river Styx.

Plutus - Classical Mythology. A personification of wealth, son of Demeter, associated with peace.

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