Then the child of Zeus, Helen, decided she would mix the wine with drugs to take all pain and rage away, to bring forgetfulness of every evil.
– The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson
If I knew the difference
between entomology
and etymology, I’d know
my either; I’d know if you meant
meaning or just a clacking
of beetles, just a phalanx
of carapace carried by
a hundred legs as in centi
or thousand as in milli, but my mind
is modest these days. Even
modestly minded I know
it’s no mistake that abduction
shares a word with what
penetrates me: rape. What do
you know from one? Was she
merely hogtied and dragged
in a flaxen bag from all
she ever knew or was she
pressed face to the dirt and
entered? Either way, they say
rape. If you wonder what made
this face, this curve of cheek,
consider how the candlelight
catches faint down where my jaw
meets this elegance of neck.
You must recall my mother
was force fucked by a swan,
and that’s our fate. Our citizenship
so tenuous, we even get taken
by the birds. You’ve heard how
we bury our children, how we watch
war made with wooden horses,
how we get dragged to hell because
poor Hades needs a date,
and as consolation they give us
poppy powder for our wine. I say
another dram of dream in mine.
I am such a scholar for forgetting,
such a student for letting go. I say
set the table to a swarm of servants
buzzing in the corners of this
opulent palace. I say anoint
the chalice to Menelaus who
lets me be as shitfaced as I please
until morning wipes the prior day
clean, and I can try living again.
Until then, I may hallucinate
that the thousand launched ships
never come back. Will you,
my guest, drink to that?
Sonia Greenfield is the author of two full-length collections of poetry. Letdown, released in March, was selected for the 2020 Marie Alexander Series and published by White Pine Press. Her collection, Boy With a Halo at the Farmer's Market, won the 2014 Codhill Poetry Prize and was published in 2015. Her chapbook, American Parable, won the 2017 Autumn House Press chapbook prize. Her work has appeared in a variety of places, including in the 2018 and 2010 Best American Poetry. She lives with her husband, son, and Shiloh Shepherd in Minneapolis where she teaches at Normandale College and edits the Rise Up Review. More at soniagreenfield.com.