Epitaphs, for Epic

by Brian Culhane

1
Aeneas shouldered his father and then took
Troy with him in a final backward look.

2
Penelope raveled and raveled thread
Before repairing to her marriage bed.

3
Armor bravely worn without condign skill:
Myrmidons wept until they paused to kill.

4
Byzantium enchanted William Yeats
As civil war tore down ancestral gates.

5
Freud’s coign of vantage was Ego and Id;
Not for him the bright lances of El Cid.

6
Better some farmer up there than here a god—
Or so Achilles gestured under sod.

Published on January 20, 2011