A Thousand Ships

We shall not tolerate

terrorists, cried

Odysseus.

Then the men were gone.

Gone, gone,

for twenty years.

The women wept.

The children cheered.

We pinned ribbons

to our chests

lest we forget.

Knowing it true.

War is horrible,

horrible. Unless

fought for you.

Poseidon as My Father in His Wheelchair

Angry. More than any first principles he knows that he is

angry, and circles the room like a magnet at the poles, dirt

on his hinges. He wipes it off and keeps circling, not caring

what sticks, what will never come away.

My father is a war-god. And he is worth worshipping.

I have done so for decades, though he does not know this. Though

he spins his wheels until he is dizzy and tired and ill.

Do you feel the harsh tide rising? Spitting fish straight

out of the sea? Those wading by the shores face-down on the sands?

Can you blame him? The goddesses took his legs and ran away.

His children do not know where to find them. Everywhere he turns

there are traps and riddles, and strangely familiar faces with one eye.

Daydreaming in Red

Since the bombs have gone off,

I’ve been daydreaming in red. Red faces, red carpets,

red painted houses, red washed walls. At first, it was disturbing,

this red world of blood and fire, the final hour. But then

you see, then, it all made sense. We were never

anything but red. Red eyes, red teeth, red hair. The world

is red. Look at how we try to hide it with skin! If given

the chance to begin again, I say we accept.

I say we rip open our chests

and live in red

like the wounds the fatal wounds

we are.

Understanding Postpartum Mood Disorder

Woman led to believe man

most important to woman.

Baby most important to man.

Woman cooks.

Man eats.

Baby eats.

Woman takes time off.

Man goes away on business.

Woman has baby and no man.

Man does not return.

If man does return he brings new woman.

A neighbour tells her.

Man wakes with bullet in his chest.

Baby wakes with bullet in his chest.

Woman goes to sleep with bullet in her head.

Read your classics.