Acquiescence

 

farther back, so your own Grandma said,
you were of the line of Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor,
who slaughtered Krum the Bulgar King and drank tea from his skull for life.
this is not your memory.
instead
you faced down this man's wrath
you came to the door
and drove out all night with his daughter
and lit cigarettes in the dark like the fires of Norse pillage.
today, not your father, those eyes that blazed,
take your arm in surrender.
leading him to the toilet, urine falls along the marbled floor.
witness: this little battle, this tiny conquest.
this lion of the household crumbling slowly.

 

Blaine Eubanks
Class of 2008

2nd place poetry