Hermes Takes it Easy

Bill Glose

Once, nothing was more important than speed.
Faster than Zeus’s bolts, Hermes played tricks

on the naked eye—altering arrows mid-flight,
stealing jewelry from a maiden’s neck,

nudging sundials so shadows spun backwards.
But the sprint of time has become a marathon,

and comforts once eschewed
now surround him in plush wonder.

Why run to the store when an App
brings deliveries to your door?

Kicked back in a La-Z-Boy,
winged sandals shoved beneath,

Hermes rests a bowl of chili fries
on the mound of his belly,

surfing channels in search of The Bachelor.
It’s the first episode of a new season

and all the Muses arrive in stretch limos,
their spiked heels clicking up the walkway,

whitened teeth gleaming, every mouth
perfect as the one before.

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Whenever possible, Bill Glose undertakes intriguing pursuits to write about for magazines, such as walking across Virginia and participating in a world-record-setting skinny dip. The author of six poetry collections, one book of fiction, and hundreds of articles, Bill Glose was featured by NPR on The Writer’s Almanac in 2017 and won the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction in 2023.