Jeffrey Alfier

Archery at Vivarin, Yugoslavia

One day the market proved
        imperfect sacrifice...
Yet Cain surpassed us all,
raised man's first city from
        collateral damage...
and Abel's shattered skull.

Desire in the Hourless House of Naples

While the Hydra forever haunts his gaze...
    like the flaming breath of the Cretan Bull...
he leans upon an undulating hip
    a figure that stabs servile dreams to life.
Our hardened hero in silken marble
    enters the portals Apollo gave me,
his loins of promise suffusing vision,
    like vapor that rises and fills my brain.
Here, one fauns before such virility.
Son of Zeus: I become your ingenue.

Jeffrey Alfier writes: I currently live in Germany, hold an MA in Humanities, and have served as an adjunct faculty member of City Colleges of Chicago - European Division. In addition, I am a member of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and Phi Kappa Phi. My previous publishing credits - outside of professional journals - include The Animist (Australia; forthcoming), Alisi (Miami-Dade Comm Coll.), Evolution’s Voyage, Maelstrom (forthcoming), Nieve Roja Review (Colo State Univ), Pif Magazine (review), Poetry Magazine, Pyrowords, Riding the Meridian, Poetfest, Poetic Express II, PoetryRepairShop (forthcoming), Thermopylae, Coffy Time Blues, and Sauce*Box.