The Last Greek God

Blue

dilution

of a middle-

aged divinity –

balding – though

still moderately muscular –

if ignorant of all his antecedents

save the vaguely recollected sense

Olympus had a kind of charm for kids –

Hermes, that hot streaking whiz who’d haul

him shrieking through the air – hanging on to

those winged heels! – too many thousand years

ago to care, or know much more than: something

reels when he hangs naked off the yellow ersatz

marble column this gay bar in Vegas gives him

to make like a chill recumbent gladiator on

a break. Okay, he’s on the take (past

what he pays the pimp): okay,

he’s got

a limp.

but hey,

how often

does a mortal

get to say he’s done it

with a – hey, well, he won’t say.

(Or: how you spent the day reflecting

on how you’ll be sixty this upcoming May.)

.