When I got my Kobo WiFI
(which is now obsolete and dead)
it came with one hundred and one
free downloads from Gutenberg dot com —
classics, including
Homer’s Iliad. Well!
Always wanted to read that. Felt I should.
It was the great Alexander Pope’s translation,
so I thought it must be good
(forgetting I was never mad on Pope).
Every male friend who saw me reading it
seized the e-reader out of my hands
devoured a few paragraphs,
then handed it back reluctantly, exclaiming,
“Such good stuff, isn’t it?”
I must say, I didn’t quite get it,
but I persevered. For several chapters.
By which time it gradually dawned —
it’s a boys’ book. This one fights that one,
these ones fight them. And in between
they give rousing speeches
urging each other on,
or occasionally chiding the few cowards.
They do like a bit of biffo, blokes.
Not me. I deleted Homer.
April PAD Challenge 2014, day 8: Two for Tuesday — a violent poem / a peaceful poem. This, of course, is the violent one.
