My Second Political Appointment

Cash Toklas

After appointing my nephew
Epimetheus, titan of stupid,
Architect of the Universe,
I offered Helios,
my brother Hyperion’s son,
as a consolation,
the new position of chauffeur
to the sun
(our yellow dwarf star,
like Helios’s dad, being
a hot ball of gas).
Sadly, I wrote to “the stars”
in the position description
to make it sound sexier,
and Helios shows up
the first day in a tux
thinking he’s going to squire
Ariana Grande around the town.
And they call Epimetheus the titan of stupid.
Ariana Grande rides in my car.

Cash Myron Toklas is a new, young American poet, in the way that Umberto Eco once described himself as a “young novelist” well into his fifties, because he had started so late. Otherwise, Toklas is quite hoary. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Balloons Literary Journal, Coffin Bell, J Journal, Piltdown Review, Riggwelter, and elsewhere.