SUPERIOR FORCE,
CHARIOT RIDER,
GOLDEN HELMED,
DOUGHTY IN HEART,
SHIELD BEARER,
SAVIOUR OF CITY,
HARNESSED IN BRONZE,
STRONG OF ARM,
UNWEARINGLY,
MIGHTY WITH SPEAR,
RAMPART OF OLYMPOS,
FATHER OF NIKE,
WHO HERSELF DELIGHTS IN WAR,
ALLY OF THEMIS,
STERN GOVERNOR OF THE REBELLIOUS,
SCEPTRED KING OF MANLINESS.

HEAR ME, ARES,
HELPER OF MEN
AND
DISPENSOR OF YOUTH'S SWEET COURAGE!
SHED DOWN A KINDLY RAY
UPON MY LIFE
AND BESTOW THE STRENGTH OF WAR,
DRIVE AWAY CRUEL COWARDICE
AND DIMINISH
THAT DECEPTIVE RUSH OF SPIRIT,
UNLEASH THE BATTLE FURY
BROUGHT FORTH WITH PRIDE AND POISE,
THAT KEENEST OF FIRES
WHICH BURNS FORWARD TOWARD VICTORY
AVIODING THE VIOLENT FIENDS OF DEATH.


-A mutation of the homeric hymn

Death of Semele

Sacrifice of moon,
Bloody and painful.
Shrieks cry out in an airless night;
Stars retreat behind mythic fog;
Faces adorned with paint and mask
as wine and body are taken.
Lost vegetation scurring about the waking forest.
All is dark.
Dance
Dance!
The ritual has begun.

-Liam Marsh

Dream #3

Last night,
in a dream,
you kissed me.
I asked you to do it again
and you did.
I desired more
but your mother was watching
and, after all,
you are my cousin.

-Liam Marsh


She calls on me no more.
For how long
Will her lost red hairs
Be scattered on my bed and pillow?

Spring after spring
High school girls remain
eternal in pert and beauty.
I, alone, grow old.

-Saturn

Effortlessly rolled cigarettes
recede in the ashtray
of childhood trauma.

Poems by
Yosano Akiko
and others

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Ares Press