Fred Pelka is the author of What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement and other books on the history of disability and disability rights. His first book of poetry, A Different Blaze, was published by Hedgerow Books in 2014. He was a 2004 Guggenheim Fellow.
HAVE TO DIE IN ORDER TO SAVE OUR ECONOMY
When Agamemnon sent his message home from Aulos
urging his wife to send along their beloved daughter, plotting
her murder so as to bring fair winds for the Achaean’s voyage to Troy
was there anyone among those famous warriors
who stopped to consider the enormity of that
which he was asking?
Sacrifice to the gods for this or that favor is a given
in so many religions
but what is it we’re asking for now,
and those whom we might sacrifice,
what gods will they appease?
The Dow goes up, the Dow goes down.
Iphigenia was to die so that Troy might be sacked,
a famous victory,
so much plunder for those courageous chieftains.
But when Agamemnon returned at last to his own island kingdom
he found only Clytemnestra
waiting for him with her sharpened blade.