“… The U.S. military announced that a total of 10 American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and a helicopter crash on Memorial Day, making May [with 116 troops dead] the third deadliest month of the war [for the United States].” — An Associated Press Iraq war roundup
“… Patroclus fought like dreaming:
His head thrown back, his mouth–wide as a shrieking mask–
Sucked at the air to nourish his infuriated mind
And seemed to draw the Trojans onto him,
To lock them round his waist, red water, washed against his chest,
To lay their tired necks against his sword like birds.
–Is it a god? Divine? Needing no tenderness?–
Yet instantly they touch, he butts them,
Cuts them back:
–Kill them!
My sweet Patroclus,
–Kill them!
As many as you can,
For
Coming behind you through the dust you felt
–What was it?–felt creation part, and then
APOLLO!
Who had been patient with you
Struck.
His hand came from the east,
And in his wrist lay all eternity;
And every atom of his mythic weight
Was poised between his fist and bent left leg.
Your eyes lurched out. Achilles’ helmet rang
Far and away beneath the cannon-bones of Trojan horses,
And you were footless … staggering … amazed …
Between the clumps of dying, dying yourself,
Dazed by the brilliance in your eyes,
The noise–like weirs heard far away–
Dabbling your astounded fingers
In the vomit on your chest.
And all the Trojans lay and stared at you;
Propped themselves up and stared at you;
Feeling themselves as blest as you felt cursed. …”
–From “War Music: An Account of Books 16 to 19 of Homer’s Iliad”
By Christopher Logue, Copyright 1981
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