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The Summons<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When boys swam in the river<\/p>\n While their brothers and sisters<\/p>\n Helped with ploughing, milking,<\/p>\n Stripping feathers off the chickens<\/p>\n Before the weekend feast, and if<\/p>\n The mood came on them hiding<\/p>\n In the thickest part of the field<\/p>\n Where the wheat was as high as<\/p>\n The eaves of houses, or so it seemed,<\/p>\n Making love before the elders decreed<\/p>\n It was time for marriage and procreation,<\/p>\n Growing up which also meant using<\/p>\n A spear to fell a man, an arrow to drop<\/p>\n Enemies dead though they asked not<\/p>\n Once but several times what is an enemy,<\/p>\n Which was before coming back late<\/p>\n From hunting wild boar, seeing,,<\/p>\n At the village\u2019s edge the bright bronze<\/p>\n of armoured men, catching smell of horses<\/p>\n which none of them or their families owned<\/p>\n Though aspired to in dreams of fame.<\/p>\n It was too late to run away,hide<\/p>\n In the far field, the wheat still high,<\/p>\n From the chief whose armour was golden<\/p>\n In the sun who said rather loudly<\/p>\n There was war over the sea,<\/p>\n In a place called Troy. Achaeans<\/p>\n from Sparta,Thebes, far-off Crete,<\/p>\n had to muster, serve Agamemmnon.<\/p>\n He\u2019d summoned judges,army chiefs<\/p>\n bureaucrats,\u00a0 and shipmasters<\/p>\n To his palace at Argos,<\/p>\n told them in no uncertain terms,<\/p>\n that the Gods wanted this, not least<\/p>\n Athena and what she said went<\/p>\n since one did not disobey gods lightly.<\/p>\n So all of us who\u2019d thrown a spear,<\/p>\n or brought down a deer at fifty paces<\/p>\n with an arrow clean to the heart,<\/p>\n what could we do but volunteer ?<\/p>\n Our mothers howled most horribly<\/p>\n In\u00a0 front of girl friends\u00a0 who knew that<\/p>\n Weddings would not happen,no babies<\/p>\n Would be hoist proud on our shoulders<\/p>\n For several years, and maybe not ever.<\/p>\n And Myrmidon, who was a bit more learned,<\/p>\n Muttered about Thanatos and Hypnos ,yet<\/p>\n We did not stay to listen but rushed home<\/p>\n To stammer farewells, gather up clothes;<\/p>\n For that was how it happened.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Baron<\/strong> has had poems published in Other Poetry\/South Bank Poetry\/ The Journal\/The Third Way\/Jewish Quarterly\/Herne Hill Society<\/em> magazine. \u00a0He is editor\/co-editor of: On A Bats Wing \/The Night Shift<\/em> (Five Leaves Press), The Cockermouth Poets -1700-2012<\/em> (River Poets (2010)Cockermouth), How Hall- Selected Poems of Tom Rawling<\/em> (1916-1996) (Lamplugh Heritage Society), Wordsworth and the Famous Lorton Yew Tree<\/em> (Lorton Historical Society).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Summons When boys swam in the river While their brothers and sisters Helped with ploughing, milking, Stripping feathers off the chickens Before the weekend feast, and if The mood came on them hiding In the thickest part of the field Where the wheat was as high as The eaves of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9021,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9019\/revisions\/9021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}