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Night In Eight Lines

Once in bed did the Greeks question

what was mere formality and what was mere suggestion?

Did the lady check with eyes so blue

through a marble key-hole what she thought was true?

Did all night these bad thoughts pester

the horse-driving Gerenian Nestor?

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And was the father of the other

wakened from his bad dream smothered,

as though flesh was lodged in his throat

and another body covered his back like a coat?

Peisistratus, in the morning, awoke last

while the departure Telemachus made was fast

The night was not mentioned on their ride,

as though both had something they wished to hide

And the author's mentioning of "ashen spear"

seems to make the meaning that less clear

Unmarried both they came,

unmarried both they remained'

-Craig Amoss

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