Achilles Considers the Mother Thread by Jeneva Stone

once i belonged to my father

as an island belongs to the sea

separate yet surrounded

once i belonged to my mother

as rain belongs to the ocean

enveloped and then dissolved

there are two ways I might die

mortal & unknown

immortal in name only

but I must die

a man’s life cannot be gained again

or recovered

once it has flown from his mouth

when i die

at last

i will belong to myself

*

mēnin (μῆνιν)

wrath anger rage rancor

are preferred

translations

battle cry

howl

I am what

flies from

a mouth (stoma)

with what else do you roar?

*

Αχιλλεύς

how a man is spelled

writes his story

Achilles

𝚫CHILLES

my painter took

the fourth letter

𝚨𝛂 𝚩𝛃 𝚪𝛄 𝚫𝛅

a bottom dropped

from an alpha as if

as if

i were unstoppable

*

or a delta

words flow through

silt that remains

of song

O sing muse of the wrath

an inversion:

𝛁

crude image of a man

broad shoulders

waist pinched

*

𝚫CH𝚫E𝚫NS

ancient name without

an etymology

meaning only

Greeks

arkhe: beginning

once i belonged to my father

(mortal)

once i belonged to my mother

(immortal)

then history took me

i was willing to be taken

my body or

my fame mine

to choose

once I belonged

to my people

*

here are the walls of

Troy impenetrable

here is a ship

in its galley

big-shouldered men at their oars

driving the vessel across a choppy sea

i rode on top of that sea

seeded with

my mother’s tears

she still weeps for me

(after i died)

myrmekes

my ant people swarmed

from the wooden horse

opened the gate

a membrane

hymen or

hymnos: O sing muse of my wrath

once i belonged to my mother

who begged me to live

mitos

thread of the river Styx

that connects us

*

𝛅

(lowercase)

forms a shield

a spear emerging atop

ACHILLES AGAMEMNON

AJAX HEKTOR PRIAM

TROILUS MENELAUS

PATROCLUS NESTOR PARIS

to each of these furies

my painter gave form

cock & balls

full tilt at one another

you ought to join me

in hurting the man who hurts me

join me

khondros: cartilage

we tore them stem from stern

stoma: a mouth

once i belonged to my father

and so the world i burned

they pour along like a fire that sweeps the whole earth before it

sing O muse

mitochondrion

the mother thread

sing on and on and

I am the mouth of the river the delta the silt

that composes I

am the ekho i