Helvius Cinna Walks the Forum on the Eve of His Dismemberment by Eric Brown

With Ariadne’s crown gleaming sidereal,
Pitched in heaven by the god of wine, to twine
There with celestial ivies, I lingered last night
Passing your Forum, Caesar, where your steed
Stands stout, and down whose steps you came
Only last week for the Feast of Lupercal,
When I hosted you and we drank our cups clean.
Such sport beggars those whose debts lie unpaid,
Vitruvius, Moscius, and barren Hermia,
But for you the riches of the table are spent
With never a thought of impecunity.

Fennel-sweet ham hocks, no less proportioned
Than that Crommyonian sow, slain by the son
Of Aegeus and fatted on the flesh of Corinthians.
Nor were scant the salted eels, brined and basted,
And our grapes full of juice, pulpy and bursting,
With pan-fired breads and goat’s cheese. And we ate
Past satiety those honeyed butterflies you claimed
A delicacy in Alesia. Nor did the rubious wine
Fermented from the old vineyards of Oenopion
Mix with waters of Volturnus, but stained our lips
And garments a deep purple, as you told tales
Of many a cold Gallic battle, frosted stubblefields
Where crows huddled and gorged on barley grains
And the fat aphids that burrowed into the browning
Stalks, while Rhinish tribes brought tribute of gold,
Lest great Caesar like flame-robed Hyperion
Incandesce and put their frozen hovels to fire.

Such thoughts warm me now, sole wanderer
On this chill night: Aurora’s dull orange glow
Still hours away, and the city quiet as a snowfall.
Now in the shadow of Saturn’s star-bright altar,
On the fluted stones of mossy pillars, sluggish snails
Slime their oozy trails, and wait for the empyreal sun
To light their way.

Eric Brown is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maine Farmington and current Executive Director of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The Ekphrastic Review, Mississippi Review, Carmina Magazine, The Galway Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and The Frogmore Papers (shortlisted for the 2023 Frogmore Poetry Prize).