At Ephesus

—“We tried so hard to keep his name from turning
Into eponym.
Long after Artemis’s temple-burning,
How did we fail?
What did we do to make a household word of him?
We threw him into jail
And racked him till he couldn’t speak.
Then we watched him die,
The very day of Alexander’s birth.
Was our damnatio memoriae
Such a feeble act, so . . .
. . . . . . .
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