Circe, the Classical Studies scholar, selects her own sorority.
She turns her frat rat suitors into sisters, then invites them to dine.
The vestiges of men taint this dinner party. Loutish
manners remain. These nouveau femmes transform the feast
into a testosteronated banquet by lifting their chair legs,
holding their knives as antlers, and acting as rutting rams
clashing over the centerpiece. At the football stadium,
docile jocks assemble where the jealous Circe has arranged
their transformation into swine. At the fifty-yard line,
they count off their fate, where one in twenty become boars,
the rest, sows. How else to propagate the species of pork chops,
pickled snouts and tenderloins for the guests at Circe’s table?
In the kitchen, Circe’s male professors are now aproned-clad women,
seasoning their arguments with scallions and garlic. Brothing
at the mouth, the cooks whip their pigtails till they interlock,
impeding civil intercourse, interrupting the serving of soup.
In the dining hall, Circe sits at the table’s head, swilling her blood-red wine.
—First appeared in Last Stanza Journal
JL Kato is a retired newspaper copy editor. His poetry collection, Shadows Set in Concrete, was selected as a Best Book of Indiana in 2011. A longtime ambassador of the literary arts, he was chosen as 2022 Literary Champion by the Indiana Authors Awards.