Lethe by Kaylena Robin Steiner

Instead of being dipped

into the River Lethe

and forgetting,

I am dunked

and forgotten.

I wander the world a ghost.

My memories remain intact,

yet the place where my presence

would occupy space in others’ minds

appears blank.

My absence screams at me.

Attacks me.

Bludgeons my heart

until its hues

are solely shades of blue.

How have I angered the gods.

What foul actions

have I unwittingly undertaken,

what lines crossed,

to be cursed thusly?

Every drop I touch or drink

becomes a subsidiary of Lethe.

Those who meet me in the day,

have forgotten me by evening.

A perpetual cycle of watching how I am forgotten.

My entrance to Asphodel is barred.

The Fields of Punishment do not call me.

No list deeming worthiness of Elysium holds my name.

I’m left to roam the mortal world,

Begging the gods for a reason.

Can they not hear me?

Have not only the mortals,

but the gods, too, forgotten me?

Is my entrance to Hades blocked

by a perceived non-existence?

A terrible question swirls in the back of my mind:

Am I some figment, some product of a dream?

Born a ghost with no life to judge

in order to grant entrance to Hades?

Did I never exist at all?