Achilles Named Prophetically
One writer has proposed his name must mean
The “lipless” one. How strange. Or is that weird?
Despite Homeric speeches there’s not been
A record of his words. His nascent beard
Is what we can infer beneath his nose.
The rest is guessing. Witnessed words might stain
His glory anyhow. Who would want prose
From that throat? Maybe, though, it was the pain
That he would suffer which this writer thought
Would make him lipless. There was no relief
For blood-like wounded pride, that blackened clot,
But most of all his petrifying grief
For that one friend said liplessness would yield
The shape of joy forever repealed.
