The Fouling Of The Throne Must Bring The Dearest To Disaster Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

IPHIGENIA AND THE SACRED DEER

Cutting down reason and resolution
Her father slew the sacred deer Telos
Impiously coursing to negation
The milk-white hind beloved of Artemis.

This end of innocence presaged slaughter
When the goddess pressed reparation
From the father demanding his daughter
Dead to call the readied fleet to action.

So wars are born of foolishness and pride
And children sacrificed to circumstance,
And dreadful means are often justified
By chains of error, hubris and mischance.

Being so bloodied at the altar stone,
Betrayed by her reckless, heedless elder,
Did she perceive the fouling of the throne
Must bring the dearest to disaster?