The Greek Play / Tragedy

I

What are they called? what do we call them:

Orion. Pegasus. Sagittarius.

What else?

Scutum and Perseus. Procyon.

And the constelation of a charioteer?

Aurigia, Aurigia. O look how she whips
the invisible horse toward battle.

II

What is battle without stars?

What is Achilles without his shield?
his spear? that which he needs?

A man like any man: vulnerable,
fallible, how in time he will die
by my bow.

III

How?

Less like a leave
than like a bird. Not as much a bird as the Spartan
warrior by the banks of our walls. Nor a lamb,
when it lays down. Nor ruin nor rain nor meteor,
nor bird nests under storm.

IV

What is war without blood? What is war if lives
have not been spilled upon, first, our friends,
later: our foes?

Not a cruel one, but a diplomatic one.

V

A diplomatic one.