ACHILLES & PRIAM

 ACHILLES & PRIAM
 

It’s a couple of thousand
years and more
since the Greek and the Trojan
Armies made war
And Achilles slew Hector
and refused him the fire
and his vengeance unquenched
stoked demonic desire.

if you murder the living
you can pay with your life
but what have you to forfeit
if you murder the dead
you’d cease to be human
the gates of hell would arise
and consume your existence
yet keep you alive

Just so was Achilles
contempt for the gods
when he dragged Hector’s body
round Troy’s wailing walls
a war crime so vile
yet the Greeks took delight
in defiling the dead
by day and by night

King Priam, the father
Of Hector, disguised
Came bereft as a beggar
Before Achilles own eyes
And he cried like a woman
Till Achilles cried too
And gave back the body
For what it was due.

If you thought that old Homer
Wrote to glorify war
Think about how Achilles
Won his soul back from hell
he could have killed Hector’s father
but he gave him a meal
and they both drank together
from the same bitter well

It’s a couple of thousand
years and more
since Troy came to glory
in bitter defeat
she’s a people remembered
forever in awe
that she was only defeated
by guile and deceit

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