Hector
All Day Permanent Red (To welcome Hector to his death) by Christopher Logue To welcome Hector to his death God sent a rolling thunderclap across the sky The city and the sea And momentarily— The breezes playing with the sunlit dust— On either slope a silence fell. Think of a raked sky-wide Venetian blind. Add the receding traction of its slats Of its slats of its slats as a hand draws it up. Hear the Greek army getting to its feet. Then of a stadium when many boards are raised And many faces change to one vast face. So, where there were so many masks, Now one Greek mask glittered from strip to ridge. Already swift Boy Lutie took Prince Hector's nod And fired his whip that right and left Signalled to Ilium's wheels to fire their own, And to the Wall-wide nodding plumes of Trojan infantry— Flutes! Flutes! Screeching above the grave percussion of their feet Shouting how they