III. Echidna

[Gilberto]

1.

Serpent Goddess, twilight wife
Called Tiamat in Babylon
Mother of all sacred life
Who matroned monsters like Dagon

2.

A cave behind a waterfall
From darkened depths assail
She rises like a righteous squall
With coiled constricting tail

3.

Impassioned kiss of needle teeth
to make the pool my tomb
I sank into her world beneath
delivered through her womb

4.

I awoke not dying, dreaming
Another restless night
But alive with all the seeming
that still I felt her bite

[professordave]

That's the kind of nightmare you have after a late-night run to Taco Bell, then falling asleep while reading the Epic of Gilgamesh.

[Gilberto]

Not exactly the Joseph Campbell interpretation, but it could be true.