WEN: 24A9BE
Exhibitor Name: Lisa Roberts
Division: Poetry (Adults)
Class: 01 Poetry
The New Man by Lisa J. Roberts Odysseus exulted.
With the ease of supple eloquence and slippery speech, weaving in and out of verity with verbal prowess, he swayed them.
The resplendent armor would be his. Ajax, grim determination, stood like
the march of time, implacable, unstoppable. Words failed, but, lo, what eloquence in his fingers gripping his sword, Hector’s sword, in suffocating embrace as he waited.
The armor of honor belonged to him. He battled Hector to a draw.
He besought Achilles in embassy. He butchered Trojans day by day. He rescued the broken body whose armor now he claimed. He, largest of the Greeks, strong beyond measure, yet without a hint of hubris. Ajax, unbelieving, felt his muscles fail him, as Odysseus conquered all with embellished sophistry. A web of words ensnared his feet and nearly felled him, for all his strength. What mattered strength if the armor went to words? What mattered honor and power? Perverse shadow thoughts stirred beneath Ajax’s mind as Odysseus laughed and donned the prize. Seething,
Ajax plotted his revenge, waiting for dusk, steeping in his betrayal. Rushing, bursting forth, furious muscles rippling like sails in a storm, Ajax executed his justice, slaying the judges who valued words over deeds, slaying the judges who slew him and exalted the New Man. Like lambs to the slaughter, the Greeks fell before his wrath. None could withstand his onslaught. None would outlive his fury.
How long he reveled in his retribution, he could not say, but as dawn’s rosy fingers lifted the fog from his eyes, with horror he beheld the slain. An owl hooted, sailing across the scene, the dawn illuminated the slaughtered sheep, and he knew instantly that Athena
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter