A Reality TV Goddess + Death at the Check-out : two new poems by Beth Cato

This week we welcome back Beth Cato, a regular Grievous Angel contributor and the author of The Clockwork Dagger steampunk fantasy series from Harper Voyager. Her website is at http://BethCato.com Beth's two poems take a fresh urban fantastic look at two women from the world of myths and legends: Death (yes, she is a woman) and the goddess Hera. Death is one of a set of four poems on the Riders of the Apocalypse, also featuring Famine, Pestilence, and War.


​Riders of the Apocalypse: Death

Death incarnate doesn't often ride
a pale horse these days
instead she prefers a white SUV
(the stick figure family on the back window
is a holdover from a previous owner)
she texts as she drives
sometimes drinks her latte at the same time

her current day job is cashier at Walmart
usually check-out 19, where cigarettes are sold
she offers laden advice to customers
"don't enjoy that sunlight too much"
"I hope you don't drink this in one weekend"
"enjoy time with that baby"

she's been Death for a very long time
but most people don't understand
that she never actually kills anyone
folks manage that quite well on their own


Hera Herself, at 8'clock Tonight

on the premiere episode
of her new reality show
Hera has finally left Zeus
after thousands of years of infidelity

she starts over in New York City
a modern woman
no worshipers
a few thousand dollars in the bank

[excerpt] "What do I put on a resume?
Former job experience: goddess?"

she needs a place to live
maybe even a new love
but most of all
she's an immortal in search
of new meaning in her life