WHOM WE KNEW

The Emperor Rudolph had his wizards
Summon great Achilles to attend him;
But every Achilles thinks that he
Is the great Achilles -- even Zeno's
Who spends a dull eternity
Not reaching a smug tortoise.
Getting lost in the palace corridors
They roistered into a dream
Belonging to Bette, the new kitchen girl.
Achilles the first -- the Greek one --
Rode on a large yellow horse
Who introduced himself as Xanthos
"Achilles speaks only Greek; I will translate
For him and the others. Achilles you know;
These gentlemen are the Achilles of Rome,
The Achilles of France, the Achilles of Sicily,
The Achilles of Lombardy, and the two
Achilleses of England. (Since one of them –

The first Duke of Wellington--
Won't be born for almost two centuries
We have represented him with a handsome rag doll.)
How can we serve you? Please note that all these men
Are brave beyond measure but have bad tempers
Except for Achilles of Lombardy, who is kindly
But something of a coward."

TWO OUT OF THREE

The man who thinks "I'm sauntering"
Is fooling himself. Odds are he's ambling,
Or, more rarely these days, moseying

The money in my wallet whispers
Thinking I do not hear. Someday,
I will learn its language.

PREPARATION

The last public letter writer has no mirror.
Every morning, she rises from the ground
And models herself on a faded photo
From 1910. She wills herself into focus,
Dabs on a touch or two of color,
Waits for customers. There are always some.

DISCORPORATE

After Cavafy died that part of his soul
Responsible for the rejected poems
Didn't leave with the rest of him.
Some mornings bleak-eyed tourists
See it, dressed in impeccable evening clothes,
Drilling alongside soldiers who fell
During the Siege of Alexandria
Evenings it spends quietly with the ghost
Of Ptolemy Auletes, whose equerry it’s become.
Occasionally it picks up a stick,
Dips it in water and writes a new poem.

IN CASE YOU'VE BEEN WONDERING

My favorite thing about being a pharaoh?
Not the occasional ride in the Boat of the Sun.
The view is unparalleled but even pharaohs
Are expected to take turns pulling an oar
Rowing through the deadland while Atum sleeps.
Nor is it sharing beer with Hathor under a tamarisk
The beer is good but Hathor talks endlessly
About being both Ra's mother and daughter
Which she considers infinitely amusing.
Some pharaohs revel in smiting their enemies
But I’d no taste for war and somehow
All my enemies smote back.
No; the best part was having a second shadow
And a decorated box in which the shadow slept.

PAWLING

Many a ghost in Pawling thinks he is the revenant
Of former governor Thomas E. Dewey.
You'll see them crowding the streets after snowstorms
Each with a shovel and a disciplined mustache,
Digging out cars, clearing sidewalks, soliciting votes.
At high school games Pawlonians are used
To massed Thomas E. Deweys taking the field
To perform at half-time. In time, they grow weary
Shunning the light, their mustaches gone ragged.

WAKING JUST BEFORE DAWN

That I was stiff from sleeping in my chair
Was Daniel Defoe's fault; his account of Winchester
Had not kept me awake. My soul, restless,
Was typing clumsily at the computer, its lips tight.
Frankly, I am rather scared of it these days
Though not because of its torn ear or missing eye --
The predictable results of age and the life it lives.
When it returned from its long absence
It wrapped itself in all it was wearing --
A rough-woven blanket -- and slept for three days
When it woke, it didn't know me or itself
And scoffed at the notion that a soul
Could sleep, could talk, could bide its time
Until the moment for escape came round again.