Someone insisted--indeed, threatened bodily harm if I did not comply.

To help you better understand the power of editing, compare the previous entry with this one. I believe that this third or fourth revision more accurately reflects the emotion I was attempting to capture.


HELOT

Oh but
the hot city
and memory.
you wouldn’t lie to me
but I
would lie.

age
is chalk
in the mouth of bravery.
the young hoplites crashed
by out the window,
‘cross the asphalt,
and my plume
withered;
and I
was filled
with heavy things:

our trees
by the church,
pink blossoms like
a fresh
bone of want—