ETRUSCANS

When you pray in Etruscan nowadays

Usually Fufluns or Selvans will answer

The others have mostly sloped off.

Lenith, a skilled death goddess,

Writes unhappy romance novels;

Turan drinks; Achuvzr went home

To Samothrace where at least

They can pronounce his name.

Culsans works as a carpenter,

Calu as a wolf. Knives sharpened by Culso

Never break, never dull, never darken

(They can also speak. From its drawer,

I can hear mine complaining

That I used it to pry open a jar.)

Fufluns takes being a wine god

Far too seriously. His name used to be

Something long and sonorous

But drunks, who needed him most,

Couldn’t get it out. Selvans

Read on Wikipedia that he is

“A civil god.” Since then he has been

Extremely polite, though he knows

“Civil” just means he was a god

Who hung around city limits.

He is the only deity I know who,

Before entering a dream, knocks;

The others just barge right in.