Death & Empedocles 444 B.C.

Glittering, adroit, the Sicilian wonder

Stepped from the sea, spoke to the crowds:

'I was first a girl, then a blundering boy,

Then a briery bush (Ankh into Crucifix!),

Then a bird, a fish: and last of all,

Your friend, Empedocles.

I come to greet you.'

Scattered applause, then groans and hisses:

A woman's voice: 'He was my lover.

He taught my hands to conquer snakes.'

And other voices: "Take him away. His face

Has the look of death.'

"The distant west

Turns green, then violet. There are tremors

In the earth and menstrual heat. People are warned:

There are ashes falling.'

Some saw him leap

Deep into Aetna:

a roar of smoke, slow lava pouring-

(We found his sandal near the.crater's lip)-

Smell of psychosis, metempsychosis in the air:

Earth and its caverns towering over him;

His way was lost in flames, a Mandrake forest-

He could not unkindle fire, unwind the spell.

He was neither Herakles, nor Ganymedes

While madness (hope of fame) walked at his side.

Streets had turned treacherous, and crowds fell quiet-

Each waiting for a comet in the sky.