Odysseus With Achilles In The Underworld
Attica red-figure vase, ca 480 B.C.

Achilles Heel

Short-lived Achilles said to wise
Odysseus, down under,
What’s in a name? – I’d rather be
long-lived, then unremembered.

But for most of us, whether we live
a hundred years, or less,
in no time at all no one will know
we were once here – at best

grown-old grandchildren might recall
being taken to the zoo
or other treats, before, in turn,
they exit history too . . .

Achilles, on the other hand,
will still be one of us
unless the classics are expunged
from the syllabus.

Tom Vaughan

 
If you have any thoughts about this poem, Tom Vaughan  would be pleased to hear them