Prometheus unbound

I shall never exchange my fetters for slavish servility. Tis better to be chained to the rock than be bound to the services of Zeus.
Aeschylus, Promethues Bound

Mars shall glow tonight,
Artemis is out of sight.
Rust in the twilight sky
Colors a bloodshot eye,
Or shall I say that dust
Sunders the sleep of the just?

Hold fast to the gift of fire!
I am rage! I am wrath! I am ire!
The vulture sits on my rock,
Licks at the chains that mock
Emancipation’s breath,
Reeks of death, death, death.

Death shall not unclench me.
I am earth, wind and sea!
Kisses bestow on the brave
That defy the damp of the grave
And strike the chill hand of
Death with the flaming sword of love.

Orion sitrs. The vulture
Retreats from the hard, pure
Thrust of the spark that burns,
Unbounds, departs, returns
To pluck, out of death’s fist
A god who dared to resist.


This piece was published in Focus under the name of Ruben Cuevas (Jose Lacaba’s pen name then). The poem itself is an allegory of the events surrounding its publication.

It was the height of Martial Law, the dark age of the press. Any dissent is immediately silenced. The gist in Prometheus unbound isn’t in between the lines. Rather, the first letters of every line, when read vertically, says a lot of how Lacaba became Prometheus, the “god who dared to resist.” The regime eventually learned about the parody.

A famous writer of short stories concurred with the idea of the writer being granted with supernatural powers. The writer is god. Who else, but a literary genius like Lacaba, could find a way to steal fire and give it to the people. Who else could leave the late strongman puzzled but a literary god like Lacaba. Dissent demands energy and power only the god could confer.

But the writer is not god. He is only Prometheus, a potential giver of light and life. He is also, in more than one way, bounded by the gods. It is not the likes of Prometheus that the gods fear the most. It is man, the reader, the recipient of light.

Prometheus stole fire and bore the wrath of Zeus’s vultures. So must we, spread light and endure burning.