(oh friends)

There’s just that—the choked sob
At the end of a line
That used to be one long
Line in the Greek: (oh friends).
Notes don’t seem the best way
To parse it in our tongue,

But it speaks its own way.
Troy is gone. The war’s done.
It’s all loss, grief: (oh friends).
Some days I look out there
And see our walls still stand,
Our homes, too, but . . . (oh friends).