Diana Arterian
Two Poems
Diana Arterian
Diana Arterian is the author of the poetry collection Playing Monster :: Seiche (1913 Press, 2017), the chapbooks With Lightness & Darkness and Other Brief Pieces (Essay Press, 2017), Death Centos (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), and co-editor of Among Margins: Critical & Lyrical Writing on Aesthetics (Ricochet, 2016). A Poetry Editor at Noemi Press, her creative work has been recognized with fellowships from the Banff Centre, Caldera, Millay, Vermont Studio Center, and Yaddo, and her poetry, criticism, conversations, and translations have been featured in BOMB, Denver Quarterly, LitHub, Los Angeles Review of Books, NPR, The New York Times Book Review, and The Poetry Foundation website, among others.
Diana holds a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, and an MFA in poetry from CalArts. She is currently Assistant Director for Los Angeles Poet Laureate Robin Coste Lewis' Poetic Truths & Reconciliation Commission: Los Angeles project. This spring, she was the Visiting Emerging Poet-in-Residence at Wichita State University.
Diana Arterian
Two Poems
Germanicus’ recovering two of three golden eagle standards aquilae
[15-17 CE – Teutoburg Forest | Rome]
They returned to the wood of loss
finding bones jutting from mounds
skulls fixed to trees horse parts large in mud
and air charred Roman men on moldering
altars Germanicus and soldiers spend days
burying the pieces then deal death shackle
enemies until having two golden eagle standards
in hand Yet the tribesmen mostly blend
with the trees become the earth even
slink full defeat one aquila never found
Emperor Tiberius calls the soldiers home
for parade Men crowned with braided
bay laurel gold necklets Breastplates
hanging from them for their killing
They sing of the events of Germanicus
in his triumphal chariot the robe
purple pulled and its gold threaded
through His face daubed red palms
raised the two gold aquilae eagle wings open
catching the light Agrippina the Elder and the five
small children beside their lives opening
before them as the wings in the royal
lines loyalty beauty love the power possible
in the children and it is a certain glory to all
who see them Agrippina not yet two beside those
in chains including the chieftain’s wife and toddler boy.
Empress-Mother Livia ill Agrippina small seeing the movement around the prone woman power there a flame fixed Livia noticing points to a plant outside put an ear to it see what it tells
[22 CE – Palatine Hill | Rome]
Agrippina so on the ground
beside a bud ear like pink
a shell opening to it close hearing
nothing a while shallowing breath trying
deafness to other sounds there so
noting the snick-ing open of green
and when hearing the sound sees
Emperor Tiberius at his mother
Livia’s side With the low rasp
of petals hissing their slow
touching sees the poison pumping
through them his power her power
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