Iphigenia in Sodus

from Quick Question (2012)

        Why does that name sound so familiar?
	If I were you I shouldn’t worry, or ask.
	
	But—isn’t that collusion?
	Well, yes, technically it is,
	
	but we’re a long way from truth here.
	Well, it all seems right, but we’ll have to
	
	put different bodies on the gentlemen—
	Something that speaks to truth, as she is now,
	
	which is how we all had envisioned her:
	wrapped in jade strips, more or less flyblown,
	
	somewhat sloppy about the mouth these days.
	Excuse me, I had issues,
	
	but then the doors sagged, the window frames
	had disappeared a long time ago into the murk
	
	of this age. Seen now, she pivots frantically
	near where we—they—arrive to consult the oracle,
	
	making small talk the while, about how whose
	elections needed shortening, and how all this
	
	streamed away into cozier times, in ways kind to me,
	before chopping them down.