Tarquin and Athena

Cowardice is peace
And prophecy violence.
Athena’s wisdom is
Armed with a spear.
Odin was hanged,
He hanged himself,
One-eyed Odin,
Nine days
On the world-tree
In biblical pain;
With the rune-book
Returned. The Sibyl
Had nine books
For Tarquin; in the end
For her full price
He bought three—
Which would also burn.
We always interrogate
The past, like a refugee,
For nonexistent papers.
We always extrapolate
Our nonexistent pasts
To impossible futures.
Then, every day,
Shock ourselves cold
By some ridiculous now,
Cruelly absurd and
Absurdly cruel.
Regulus swore
To return to his death
From Carthage’s parole;
They packed him in a box
Spiked with nails, and
Rolled it down a hill
Like the Cheka in Odessa.
Nothing could be colder;
Nothing is more human.
As people get older
They run yellow lights.
Wherever they are
Is nowhere to be,
Is not a place
Of honor. Will time
Alone dispose
Of these toxic nows?
Prophecy is peace
And cowardice violence.