Briseis and the Imagists
Episode 2: Cast of Characters

A Work in Progress
138

Donal invented them 

Now these avatars have an intention

Of acting in character true to the fiction

That first was written about them

Aldington, a man who knew war from the inside out

Briseis, the young mother abducted by Achilles

H.D. the mysterious missing person

Glenn Hughes, the forgotten Imagist

Babette Hughes, his student turned wife

Ezra Pound, the blemished enigma

Catullus, critic of Caesar

Lesbia

Their faces appear as if drifting in space

It’s all an illusion Donal said

Just then Catullus flashed a message 

Caesar is plotting a coup

He’s lost control of the Senate

His lost control of his mind

Says magnets in water lose magnetism

No. It’s his own magnetism has lost its power

His jokes fall flat he’s losing lawsuits

Sycophants surround him

Billionaires have bought off his court

They know he’s long been venal

Now they know he’s also senile

Those around him are in too deep

It’s sink or swim or climb out of the pool

Caesar is plotting a coup

Grifts like pardons for a fee keep going

Caesar gets greedier

Many have noticed his dementia

So many he can’t let them vote

Meanwhile the war goes on

Caesar is plotting a coup

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

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