Caduceus Poems for Hermes


A swooping blade, a glassy stare



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A swooping blade, a glassy stare:


You saved the young ones, hero! Bring

Them back into the light of day.

But the myth wills its repetition:

Enter the Labyrinth once more.





Marketplace Oracle

Only a single oracle is recorded for Hermes… The inquirer…

placed a coin in the right hand of the god; he then whispered his

question into the ear of the statue, and, stopping his own ears,

left the market place. The first sound he heard outside was an omen.

Andrew Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion

Words file across the architrave like stock quotes

On a Dow Jones TV crawl. PRACTICAL OMENS

FOR BUSY PEOPLE. BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE.

(So truth obeys economies of scale?)

You slip the god a drachma and some change.

Hands to your ears, arms bent like amphora handles,

You’re primed for wisdom now. You leave the temple,

You hurry past the stalls, the slaves decrying

The price of olives and libation bowls:

The Stoa shrinks behind you and is gone.

Two men walk by, austere, with chiseled features:

This must be Aristotle; that’s his mentor,

Plato. The former’s pointing to the earth,



The latter to the sky. Unstop your ears:

Buy low, says one. The other says, Sell high.


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