ALKAIOS

AGRICULTURE

Trees:
All right,
Plant trees.
But first
Plant
Vines.

BACCHUS

Give up? How stupid,
Just for bad luck!
Nothing will work.
But Bacchus, Bacchus, if we forget your name
In our weariness, wine is the medicine
To call for, the best medicine
To drink deep, deep.

COURAGE

When courage is what he needs
He finds it in himself.

DRINK, AND GET DRUNK WITH ME

Melanippus: drink, and get drunk with me.
Once you’ve crossed the swirling Acheron
And landed in darkness, what makes you think
You’ll ever see sunlight again?
Don’t be a fool—don’t try too hard.
King Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, was the smartest man alive
And thought he could run from death,
But Fate drove him across the Acheron, then drove him over again,
And the king of darkness, Cronos’ son,
Set him a miserable task down under the black earth.
Don’t even hope for such things.

DRINKING

Drink. Why wait for the lamps?
There’s only a finger of daylight left.
Get the big cups, the ones with pictures.
Bacchus gave us wine to drown our sorrows.
Mix one of water to two of wine,
Fill them to the brim,
And let one cup quickly follow the other.

FRANKNESS

Speak
As you please
And hear
What can never
Please.

FRIENDSHIP

Friends? My friends are nothing,
And I weep for them,
And for me.

HISTORY

Not us: no.
It began with our fathers,
I’ve heard.

LOVE

I loathe Love, wasting his arrows on me
Instead of aiming at huge wild beasts.
Do gods win glory by burning up men?
Is my head a noble trophy to hang from his belt?

MOURNING

Wine, now, and more wine, and more,
And more,
Now that Myrsillus is dead.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

If a man shakes loose stones
To make a wall with,
Stones may fall on his head
Instead.

PARVENU

Even if he came from somewhere else,
You would say you did, too.

PATIENCE

Drink: the Dog Star
Is coming back, so
Drink.

PHILOSOPHY

Nothing
Will
Come
Of
Anything.

PIGGERY

Again
Again
Pigs whip up
muck
mud
slop
Again.

POLITICS

He wants power
He has power
He wants more
And his country will break in his hands,
Is breaking now.

POVERTY

Poverty:
Miserable,
Powerful,
O Poverty, you and your sister Helplessness
Fall like wolves
On this country
Once so great.

SOCIAL RELATIONS

I had you to dinner, once,
Gave you tender goat, juicy pork:
How to win friends
And influence people.

SORROW

Sorrow:
You’ve made me completely forget sorrow.

TRUE LUXURY

And the sky god pours down rain,
And the clouds whirl, and rivers freeze:
So: keep your fire high
And pour out honey-sweet wine
And lie back
With a pillow on this side,
And a pillow on that side.

TRUTH

Boy:
Boy:
Wine
And
Truth.

WINE

Wine
Opens
Keyholes
Wide.