Eight States Of Man Poem by Frank Avon

Bacchus would rather be
Apollo, golden and sculpted,
the Olympian for all eyes,
and Apollo may realize
he'd rather be Bacchus,
at least some of the time.

Mercury is satisfied
to be himself or
whoever he pretends to be,
and Zeus has no choice.
Hades loves the dark,
and Vulcan his labor.

Mars doesn't know his wars
spring from what he has repressed,
and has but contempt for others
who live them out in the flesh.
Poseidon is the master of the seas,
the Third World,

and all the other Olympians
say welcome to it:
though the depths he may prize,
they, even when they plow the Earth
and her fairest daughters,
their yearning is toward the skies.