Donal Joins the Party

A Work in Progress
16

So Donal kicked his slippers off

travelled on bare feet

swiveled swaggered high stepped side stepped

made it to the street

*

He got a job reading manuscripts 

from accredited buyers who were scouring Greek colonies 

for fragments or scrolls entire libraries of anything Greek 

but with an emphasis on Homer

under the direction of Ezra Pound playing the part

of Apollonius as produced by Glenn Hughes

impresario

Donal was ready for whatever came around

his two feet planted firmly on the ground

he can’t see the future, but he can see the past

hold onto each moment they ain’t going to last

he came by a story that unwound in his mind

how the people of Minos overthrew their tyrant

releasing the Minotaur who heeding their distress 

wanting only to be vegan and set free

devoured both tyrant and grand vizier 

before renouncing human flesh

he put it aside for he’d found a romance

inspired by the story of Briseis

who was a prize Achilles was loath to lose

but what became of her after Achilles was killed

scrolls of her story had not survived

except for this fragment Ezra had found:

when over his muscles exercise ached

his ears bent back by loud female voices

defiant straightening his back shedding

plundering and pillaging just the thought

of laying waste waste lands besieging forts

bringing Briseis home just the thought of it

solaced Donal serving scribes where the seasons

sat subtended at the center which was sex

sharpening quills a set from goose feather

Donal considering which path to choose

go on like those scribes all of them older

their purpose copying not to infuse

great art they found dull, repetitious, rote

or become Donnelly weaving new weft

inserting fragments at a desk aslant

filling in gaps that bad copyists left

he wanted a codex of his own work

from which to read a tale to Bryony

by glowing embers when he’d tell a tale

in that one quiet hour with no irony

about blonde beautiful enslaved Briseis

whose story the Greek’s Homer had left out

proud backed Bryony eyes full of crisis

her home in ruins all under lichen

Bryony stood proud a strong early bloom

turning aside winter returning spring

a child sold to slavery now a slattern 

serving rows of shaved heads meager rations

silent cowled scribes unsatisfied hunger

most of all Donal’s driven by passion

unrestrained in love as he was younger

recovering splinters fragments of quill

suffering bony satyriasis

thinking to fondle her lovely bold breasts

while telling of beautiful Briseis

Donal swept the floor

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                      2025