by Melanie Bell
(Content Warnings: References to death, abduction, decay.)
Seek a mud-thing, puddle-murky,
with eyes that look over, not into.
Who unnames shame,
who croaks desire. Follow
like a shadow,
pick the blooms and grasses from the meadow.
In one tale, go down kicking.
In another, storm down
like Ulysses, own it.
Further down than stars dive.
Further than moles,
brunt shovel to shoulder to soil.
Seek the ruler who rots like humus,
essence seen past, who you
look over without looking into.
Shades sway, hands on knees,
huddled tight and quaking.
Ascertain their muttering:
We used to be glorious, didn’t we?
Don’t, don’t you remember,
or was it only me?
Decay an apex.
Stay too long, and you become hole-riddled.
Stay too long, and when you rise, the light goes through you.
MELANIE BELL is the author of Chasing Harmony, Dream Signs, and The Modern Enneagram. Her work has appeared onstage at London's Tower Theatre and in publications such as Contrary, Cicada, and Huffington Post. A Canadian living in the UK, she loves art, music, wondering, and wandering.
Directions to the Underworld can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 7.2.
