Sunday, December 29, 2013

Achilles is Cruel


Lithe and able
Elite of ability
Miniscule in humility
Achilles was as a lion
With attendant strength
And vanity
Hector met him outside of the gate
As they planned
Two lions met in combat
Only one survived and after the battle
Achilles pulled the slain body
Round the city of Troy
The city walls lined
With horror struck citizens
As he mocked their hero
Now struck down
Dragging him with his chariot
The legs and arms flailing about
Lifeless yet, moving
Like a puppet under a madman’s strings
Broken hearted children sing
Anthems to their hero
But as with life that betrayed him
There is nothing to be done
But to wait for death to end the scene
And restore hope some other way












“And overpowered by memory
Both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely
For man - killing Hector, throbbing, crouching
Before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself,
Now for his father, now for Patroclus once again
And their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.”

 ― Homer, The Iliad