The Evil Song

by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from Dioscorides, The Greek Anthology, v, 138

One song I cannot bear, and now
Athenion sings it night and day.
Like some neglected, stupid dog
he brays away
the tune of “The Horse.”

Down with his horse, I say,
and damn all horses in general.
I cannot bear the sound of hooves.
In my dreams, an evil animal
this is. All Troy is aflame,
and in that fire I perish.

Ten years of siege, I cursed
those Greeks, but in one night
we horse-mad Trojans died.