Fly Away! Fly Away!

 by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from Archias, The Greek Anthology, v, 59 

You, above it all, tell me
“One should fly from Love.”
You, neither philosopher
     nor naturalist, seem not
to know I have no wings.

Birds flutter up
at the slightest alarm;
even from hawks
the small prey
dart away. 

So what am I to do?
Two legs I have,
     and short ones at that.
It is easy for you
with lamp and stylus
to advise the love-lorn.
Have you even seen daylight
since all that scribbling started?
That crowd around your gate,
offering coins for counsel,
do they think you an oracle?

I am doomed, I tell you.
By day I slink along
     house walls in shadow.
By night I avoid
     big, open spaces,

but I know he is up there,
     that sly one,
wings wider than eagle-span,
eyes keen, my name
already inscribed
on his dread arrow.

How fly, as helpless
as a barnyard chicken,
when Eros flaps about?

Oh, what’s the use? By dawn
I’ll be in love with someone!