THE LT. GOVERNOR OF TEXAS SUGGESTS SOME OF US MIGHT HAVE TO DIE IN ORDER TO SAVE OUR ECONOMY by Fred Pelka

Fred Pelka is the author of What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement and other books on the history of disability and disability rights.  His first book of poetry, A Different Blaze, was published by Hedgerow Books in 2014.  He was a 2004 Guggenheim Fellow.

THE LT. GOVERNOR OF TEXAS SUGGESTS SOME OF US MIGHT
HAVE TO DIE IN ORDER TO SAVE OUR ECONOMY

When Agamemnon sent his message home from Aulos

urging his wife to send along their beloved daughter, plotting

her murder so as to bring fair winds for the Achaean’s voyage to Troy

was there anyone among those famous warriors

who stopped to consider the enormity of that

which he was asking?

Sacrifice to the gods for this or that favor is a given

in so many religions

but what is it we’re asking for now,

and those whom we might sacrifice,

what gods will they appease?

The Dow goes up, the Dow goes down.

Iphigenia was to die so that Troy might be sacked,

a famous victory,

so much plunder for those courageous chieftains.

But when Agamemnon returned at last to his own island kingdom

he found only Clytemnestra

waiting for him with her sharpened blade.