Caduceus Poems for Hermes

As a baby I made the gods a fine burnt offering.

I wanted to play with fire; piety was my excuse.

I taught your cows to walk backwards, Phoebus. Why accuse

Me of stealing what I was just discreetly borrowing?
In brotherly blood feuds, prophecy foretells a rehearsal.

Atreus will be king when the sun sets in the east.

Zeus, at my urging, made that happen. Then came the feast…

To advance the plot of the play, introduce a reversal.
I went to the trouble of starting a war of immortal pathos

For gallantry’s sake: introducing three beautiful goddesses

To a handsome shepherd-prince named Paris… As odd as this

May seem, Eros is older than Death, loveless child of Night.

When bringing bad news. You, of course, can’t hurt us—

You’re passing shadows, you go up in smoke.

(Whatever shall we do if you desert us?)

I came suddenly to Troy

and found him riding in a wagon

filled with ransom.

He was heading for the enemy’s camp

to beg the body of his son

from the man who had dragged it for hours through the dust.
It was nighttime when I appeared before him

in likeness of a young man with new-grown beard.