Poem, Monday

This completes my dragged-out April poem-a-day project. It was pretty good for getting me to post regularly, especially since poems could be doubled up if I missed a day. I'm thinking I'll keep on with the occasional poem-posting, especially since my attempts to use post-by-email and schedule them to speculumannorum have turned out terribly badly formatted.

I started the week startlingly effectively today. Took main twitter off my phone; got up on time. Showered, and then listened to French podcasts over breakfast because there was less doomscrolling I could be doing. Did my week to-do lists, and puttered around prepping for the team talk "in" Melbourne this morning (evening Melb time). Which went really well! Unfortunately my brain unravelled after, and doing anything else has been a struggle all day. Dinner consisted of an orange, peanut butter toast, and six olives. Which... there's vitamins and protein and starch in there, it'll do.

Ganymede
Jericho Brown

A man trades his son for horses.
That's the version I prefer. I like
The safety of it, no one at fault,
Everyone rewarded. God gets
The boy. The boy becomes
Immortal. His father rides until
Grief sounds as good as the gallop
Of an animal born to carry those
Who patrol and protect our inherited
Kingdom. When we look at myth
This way, nobody bothers saying
Rape. I mean, don't you want God
To want you? Don't you dream
Of someone with wings taking you
Up? And when the master comes
For our children, he smells
Like the men who own stables
In Heaven, that far terrain
Between Promise and Apology.
No one has to convince us.
The people of my country believe
We can't be hurt if we can be bought.