Labours

What does it take
to be a hero?

Kill the lion and the snake
and wrestle with the deer
and take with you the spoils
to flout your lack of fear.

Bring back the boar alive,
clean the stables in a day,
and shoot down all the birds
’cause they’re getting in the way.

Bring back a bull this time
and some horses too.
And the girdle of the queen
after you make her fall for you.

Next the cattle of the sun
and the golden girls’ fruit.
Last the guard dog of the Underworld,
blacker than the devil’s soot.

Only to finally lose your life
to poison from your gullible wife.