After Callimachus

By using no spice but salt,
Eudemus, once in debt —
hence mortal peril — changed
his ways, and saved his skin
from creditors' long knives.
Now kept afloat by thrift
as sailors by a raft,
he therefore consecrates
this salt-cellar to what
gods — humble and without
high monuments — permit
his business to go on.

Stephen Burt
Parallel Play
Graywolf Press

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen Burt.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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