Hephaistos

          'Hephaistos the renowned smith . . .'
                    – the Iliad

A man of few words and little grace,
Peter Carey, bachelor, pensioner,
village farrier. As a child
I'd see him Sunday mornings
awkward in an ill-fitting suit
hobbling home from early Mass.
And when I was eight or nine he died.

So, imagine my surprise to meet him now,
this afternoon in the county library,
to find him translated
between the covers of the Iliad
conversing with the Immortals:
deity of the dragging footsteps,
old artificer, fire-god,
Hephaistos.

Liam Aungier
Poetry Ireland Review
Issue 84

© Poetry Ireland Ltd 2005
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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