5 hours ago
Patagonia
The last of the giants lived on the eastern slopes
of the southern tip of the Andes, far from the plains
most men of smaller stature called their home.
Every so often, he clambered down to sate
that most essential urge---not just to mate
but to beget---and since he only aged
in myths, his youthful looks proved suit enough
for those who’d heard of him: for those who’d not,
he was untroubled by the odd abduction.
Still, there were certain lines he would not cross
by always preferring the shortest, the ones least likely
to be his seed, such that the nearby crop
depleted with every harvest---such that he found
whole tribes of men too tall---he had to stray
farther and farther, he had to lose his way,
he had to suppress the urge to head for home
and, in the end, he made it the only urge
his body could move to sate. When he returned,
it was no wonder his knees at once gave out:
he fell headlong to the earth, bursting his skull
and spilling the clumps of gold for which his seed
would, in a crueler epoch, be bled white.
The last of the giants lived on the eastern slopes
of the southern tip of the Andes, far from the plains
most men of smaller stature called their home.
Every so often, he clambered down to sate
that most essential urge---not just to mate
but to beget---and since he only aged
in myths, his youthful looks proved suit enough
for those who’d heard of him: for those who’d not,
he was untroubled by the odd abduction.
Still, there were certain lines he would not cross
by always preferring the shortest, the ones least likely
to be his seed, such that the nearby crop
depleted with every harvest---such that he found
whole tribes of men too tall---he had to stray
farther and farther, he had to lose his way,
he had to suppress the urge to head for home
and, in the end, he made it the only urge
his body could move to sate. When he returned,
it was no wonder his knees at once gave out:
he fell headlong to the earth, bursting his skull
and spilling the clumps of gold for which his seed
would, in a crueler epoch, be bled white.