ARTEMON AND THE FATES

By
Anacreon

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It wasn't all that long ago he skulked about

In filthy, lice-infested rags, wore wooden earrings

And around his ribs the oxhide stripped

From a cast-off shield. Sweet talker that he was,

He cadged his meals off bakery girls and local whores,

Though sometimes you might find him bound

Neck down on a whipping block, or strapped

To a wheel and ratcheted up as thumb-size

Gobbets of his scalp tore off.   How is it, then,

That this same man now rides through town

In a gilded, silk-screened litter, wears jeweled

Earrings like a mix-with-all, and shades himself

With a dowager's ivory parasol?
 

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