A Quiet Death

Argos lies, patiently waiting

As the suitors march by

Like soldiers of misery.

See him sighing,

Weeping, crying,

As Antinous laughs

Cruel and hard;

The suitors kick him,

But Argos does not hate them.

He isn't that hardened yet.

And so, he lies in pain

From wounds neglected

And long ago inflicted –

Yet still he does not hate.

But he certainly cries

Once the world has been hushed

By night's sacred stillness,

And he thinks to himself

"Penelope cried, too.

She bars no emotion

She cries out her pain,

Weeping for things

She'll never get back –

Innocence lost, lying there broken."

Ithaca burns

Around you, Argos,

But you do not cry out,

You do not scream for help,

And you do not ask

For it to stop;

You know it won't.

No one will save you.

No one will want you.

And so you lie down

And let yourself die.