The Triumph of Achilles By Louise Gluck

In the story of Patroclus

no one survives, not even Achilles

who was nearly a god.

Patroclus resemble him; they wore

the same armor.

Always in these friendships

one serves the other, one is less than the other:

the hierarchy

is always apparent, though the legends

cannot be trusted--

their source is the survivor,

the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire

compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles

grieved with his whole being

and the gods saw

he was a man already dead, a victim

of the part that loved,

the part that was mortal.

From “100 Great Poems by Women,” edited by Carolyn

Kizer (The Ecco Press: 186 pp., $15)