And Now a Few Words

A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
   Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
   That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
   Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.

     The thin-lipped armorer,
        Hephaestos, hobbled away,
     Thetis of the shining breasts
        Cried out in dismay
     At what the god had wrought
        To please her son, the strong
     Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles
        Who would not live long.