Things Abandoned to Hermes

 by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from Julianus, Prefect of Egypt, The Greek Anthology, vi, 28

Sparing the fish from
     this day forward,
I, Baeto, old and trembling,
leave everything to Hermes —
the rods, the oar, the hooks,
a weighted net as large
     as any man could handle,
the floats, the well-worn creels,
even the dark stone, fire’s mother
from which I brought that element
to warm cold nights ashore.

I am done with the sea, done
altogether, so here,
to make an end to sear-faring,
I bequeath you my anchor,
the one true thing that kept
my unstable craft in place.