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# Scilla and Charybdis
- URL: https://www.hawkword.com/poetry/scilla-and-charybdis/
- Published: 2024-12-19T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-19T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: When sailing between Scilla and Charybdis, for mysteries that Man has yet to fathom, while wondering aloud if you can keep this small boat of yours from sinking to the bottom, descending into Tartarus or Hades, (depen...
- Author: A. Gee
- Tags: Poetry, Sonnet, Allpoetry Import, #Import 2026-04-25 19:56

When sailing between Scilla and Charybdis,  
for mysteries that Man has yet to fathom,  
while wondering aloud if you can keep this  
small boat of yours from sinking to the bottom,  
descending into Tartarus or Hades,  
(depends on which mythology is present)  
and knowing all along -- how best to say this --  
the journey is unlikely to be pleasant,  
continuing to point your trireme vessel  
though dragons and leviathans imperil,  
be ready, not a moment's rest, to wrestle,  
bare-handed, or at best over a barrel,  
and struggling with scourges and afflictions...  
the Oracle be damned, with its predictions