On the Cheek

Going around at a day at a time
he gets the feeling he's falling behind.
Traveling slowly and spurning the race,

only the planet can keep up the pace

Morning's already tomorrow and she's

burning the clouds that encumber his dreams.

It's a return to the what he likes best:
comfortable feelings of his loneliness,
Where is the lady he kissed on the cheek?

Wasn't her name Adelaide or Monique?

Chasing down girls on the boardwalk and then
letting them go and find prettier men.
Lights on the carousel dim as the dusk

settles upon the perennial dust.

Proem to Homer's Iliad

   Sing wrath, Goddess, the wrath of Achilles the son of Peleus,

ravaging, which put thousands of agonies onto Achaians,

which hurled numberless masses of valiant souls down to Hades,

souls of the pitiful heroes it made into spoils for dogs and

carcasses left to the birds. And the counsel of Zeus was accomplished

from that time when first both faced one another in contest

Lord of the men Agamemnon, Atreides, and god-like Achilles