Book Four

Size,

Colour,

Attracted 

Sidelong glances 

In locker showers

From boys used to drop trou,

Oxford cloth ubiquity.



A

Goddess

Empowered

Diomedes

Speared dead Pandaros,

Heaved stone at Aineias,

Whom Aphrodite swept off.



Third

Lecture,

Lineage 

For male offspring 

Of gods, goddesses,

Notable fathers, sung 

Before obliterated.



Bus

Discharged

Visiting

Team wearing their 

Navy blazers, school

Rep ties: Connecticut

Prep school, varsity players.



Pawns

Of Zeus,

Battlefield

Paired mortals, gods:

Diomedes with

Athena; Aineias,

Apollo: Hektor, Ares.



Fourth

Lecture,

Ideals of

Manhood shared: thoughts

Articulated;

All actions disciplined;

A martial education.



On

Homefield,

Opposing

Players streamed in,

Homogeneous

Wall of blue eyes, blond hair,

Pristine blue, white uniforms.



Host,

And guest,

Their fathers'

Past roles invoked,

Diomedes, and

Glaukos declined to fight

Each other, exchanged armour.



Fifth

Lecture,

Within walls,

Handmaidens wove

Threads through looms for robes,

Without, warriors stripped

Bloody armour from corpses.



By

Playbook

Quarterback,

Coach, stuck to tried-

And-true strategies

On offensive drive, failed

To spot home interception.



Bribed

Brother

Judged goddess

Beauty, Helen

Won, Alexandros

Chafed at consequences,

Hektor submitted to yoke.



Typed,

Thumbtacked,

Dining hall

Chart rotated

Waiters, and busboys-

Certified amateurs-

Tasked with freight of kitchen food.



Home

Team won,

Thanks to arm

Of quarterback,

Passes fielded based

On intuition for

Which experts neglected drills.



God,

Goddess

Mused, Hektor,

Trojan, Aias,

Greek, would fight apart,

Man against man: spears thrown 

At shields; spears plunged; boulders hurled.



Prep

School old

Boy toured his

One-time dorm where

New boy son now lived,

Relieved in its bathroom 

At adjoining urinals.



Team

Players 

Surged forward 

To pat helmet 

Of their quarterback,

Lifted on two sides from

Behind, carried him off field.



Fight

Ended

By heralds

As night arrived,

Hektor, and Aias,

Exchanged gifts as two friends,

Proven by their battle strengths.



Tossed

Among

Wet towels piled

On locker room

Floor for collection

By student attendant,

Jockstrap stamped: 'Property of.'



{18 stanzas/page}


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