the team

Of Ents Yavanna sang, and Ents there were
'though dormant, until Durin rose and walked.
Green guardians of all that's dear to Her,
but--at that time--they neither sang, nor talked.
Age-long, their thoughts were only for themselves
and sessile Olvar, sprung from Aule's soil.
The gift of language came to them through elves,
and for that debt, they're everlasting loyal.
Olorin showed up late in Eru's plan,
inserted as Dark Powers spread and grew.
As shepherd not to trees, but mortal man,
he guided much that others were to do.
'Though Hobbits joined the narrative quite late
on "Gandalf's pets" depends all Arda's fate.

Joe/Joe

Joe Biden cedes the filibuster fight
To Manchin without firing a first shot.
In West Virginia, "Democrats" lean Right,
forgetting unions won them all they've got.
The 40-hour work-week, Medicare,
and NewDeal policies on countless things,
drove back the squalor, shedding new light where
mine owners owned their lives, and ruled like kings.
Unspoken goes the threat that Joe might switch;
McConnell'd gloat to claim him as his own!
From modest roots to corporations' bitch,
Joe's never thought a thought to call his own.
The Chair of Energy's in debt to Coal
and quite enjoys this feeling of control.

Hisarlik

Carl Blegen figured out they'd dug too far;
this stone-age village can't be fabled Troy.
The House of Priam long predates the war
when Helen ran off with her Asian boy.
A modern archaeologist's appalled;
he'd do it differently were he a mensch.
The Schliemann crew demolished storied walls;
defenses gods had built, smashed for a trench.
Four levels up, they found the storage bins
securing siege-time rations in hewn stone.
The gold he photographed Sophia in
was found somewhere; location still unknown.
A site like Troy's gets built, and built again
more valuable than battlements, or men.

used and rebuilt

Poseidon took sweet Pelops by the arm,
and Hermes held his luscious slow-braised head.
Hephaistos undid Tantalus' harm
to prep this dainty for the Sea god's bed.
Let Zeus snatch playthings from the walls of Troy;
Mycenae has enough for most gods' need.
Be that a blushing maid, or smooth-cheeked boy,
no cause to shop abroad for Ganymede.
Cassandra told Apollo to get lost;
she'd rather dally with some Asian youth.
Integrity like hers bears a grave cost;
she wins no kudos for unwelcome truth.
When paths of gods and mortals intersect
our lives seem just their smorgasbord of sex.

in Man's image

Apollo was rebuffed; he took it ill.
Cassandra's meat to Klytemnestra's ax.
The prophecies she speaks are swift fulfilled,
but no one heeds such inconvenient facts.

By contrast, Zeus takes anyone he wants--
except fleet Thetis, whom his own wife guards.
The girls he meets on drunken Earth-side jaunts,

must know a pregnancy is in the cards.
Fair Aphrodite chafes at wedded life;

Hephaistos doesn't feature in her dreams.
If only Ares'd taken her as wife...

but they're full siblings, flesh, and blood, and genes.
Olympians feel sure they rule as kings,

but Eros plays the lot of them on strings.