Talthybius

His was an uneventful, a stormy life,
on the fringes of things, at their hub.
It was his task to
wrest Astyanax from Andromache,
take Briseis to Agamemnon,
escort Cassandra into slavery,
tell Hecabe of Polyxena's fate,
bring Iphigenia to Aulis.
A dispassionate man, a professional,
he laid the blame for any distress
he might have caused at the door
of those who gave the orders.
Any fire in his soul is kindled
only after his death, and concerns
the subject of heralds:
They must never be touched,
they're immune.
So he begins to be a prime mover
in human affairs—to sour good omens,
insist two murdered heralds
be avenged in kind.
Not so original, Talthybius.
Not too much style …
May whatever gods have sway in such matters
save us from those whose calling is
the polite, the civilly sanctioned,
undoing of other lives.