Blackbirdan online journal of literature and the artsSpring 2017  Vol. 16 No. 1
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an online journal of literature and the arts
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back JEANNE LARSEN

The Shock of War & All Those Bodies Effed [Dead

metaphor now zombifying] up, strewn [by titanium or bronze, macht
nichts] across a beach not Normandy’s, at city not Da Nang, near river
not Kabul or Euphrates. Skewered & bepooled—by whom? Theory
some like best for the second telling: ol’ Iliad-Homer’s nephew, son,
apprentice, gunning to out-bard him. Less geardo Achilles. More ways
to die. Less battle-natter. More survivor guilt. It’s Hermes, not dewy Iris,
sent Kalypso-ward to swing his tricky phallus. Whole voyage & abattoir
return the kind of re-do no nation gets. Not the Achaeans. Not [forget

Aeneas, that fobbit asshole] dreamy raped & slaughtered Troy. Not ours.  


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