How We Heard the Name

The river brought down

dead horses, dead men

and military debris,

indicative of war

or official acts upstream,

but it went by, it all

goes by, that is the thing

about the river. Then

a soldier on a log

went by. He seemed drunk

and we asked him Why

had he and this junk

come down to us so

from the past upstream.

“Friends,” he said, “the great

Battle of Granicus

has just been won

by all of the Greeks except

the Lacedaemonians and

myself: this is a joke

between me and a man

named Alexander, whom

all of you ba bas

will hear of as a god.”

Source: Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry (Seven Stories Press, 2001)