Ballots

 Who was it, who
 thought the in-
 nocent wouldn't
 also need to be
 called?

 From Houston to
 Kentucky, inno-
 cents were lost
 yesterday. This
 is handwriting,
 not limited up-
 on the wall. Is
 there a listen-
 er in the mech-
 anism?

        All of the songs Apollo sang alongside
        The listening river Eurotas who, blessed with the music,
        Commanded that his laurels learn them by heart,
        All these Silenius sang; the echoing valleys
        Echoed them up to the stars, till the Evening Star
        Said it was time for the flocks to come back in,
        Time to be counted, and time for him to set out
        Over a sky reluctant to yield the day.





















Virgil
Bucolica
The Eclogues
  VI, last stanza
David Ferry
  translation
Mid 30s BC
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999©