themes

Twin packs of suitors, bookends to the tale;
one woos her cousin, one sought Helen's hand.
At court in Ithaka, they're doomed to fail
Penelope's true love has come to land.
The oath that linked the first pack launched a war
Ten years of strife and camping in the mud.
This second crew are bound for something more;
they'll seal their brotherhood in mingled blood.
The twain tied with Odysseus' thread
our bard grants him alone enduring joy.
Achilles, shining bright, is ten years dead
before he hugs his wife and strapping boy.
One hero's epic if the reader'll look
spans twenty years in Homer's double book.

tempus fugit

the Second Law decrees our flow's one-way
we can't undo the thing that has been done
at best, we'll make the best of every day
but youth's too often wasted on the young
Achilles never counted thirty years
his corpse--save one small puncture--was pristine
but aging athletes suffer tendon tears
if we keep skiing when we're no more teens
live fast! die young! the world will sing your song
most glorious of all the sons of Greece
but such a candle must flame out ere long
and fits in poorly when the world's at peace
to guard our worn-down knees and aging back
we can't keep chasing kids down double black

aggrieved

Apollo tapped his boyfriend from behind
and Achilleus took it rather ill
Peleides went quite out of his mind
confronted with a greater power's will
he'd long-since reconciled to his own fate
to die unwithered but live on in song
yet never dreamed that he'd cremate his mate
sweet Patrocles who could do nothing wrong
too proud to bow to Phoebus as his boss
he took down Hektor, then shrugged off his life
the hero humanized through grievous loss
he lost his zest for war, or love, or wife
such grief bled all the pleasure from his world
let Agamemnon keep the stolen girl