A Tortoise

Try telling a dramatist the sky’s the limit
when an eagle has let fall a tortoise onto his bare skull.
Now Aeschylus will expire
without the opportunity to develop his skill
in single combat
 
or master basic hero-feats.
However emotionally detached,
a tortoise had it within it to be the sound box of a lyre
improvised by my friend, Joseph, in a last-ditch
effort to rise above the Gulag.
 
Given the Portuguese regained the fortress at Almeida
after the Treaty of Paris
it’s clear not every outcome is dire.