When the siege and assault
had ceased at Troy, Aeneas
paid me a visit. I offered him
some plan­tains and he told me
“veg­eta­bles are what
food eats.” He strode around
my wat­tle and daub, grimacing.

Pulled on white gloves as if
it were inspec­tion day,
my bil­let a mas­ter work
of jack­leg engi­neer­ing. He
asked if I was still a loyal Son
of Ilium

and opened my cup­board.
 He asked:
“Do you have any whisky?” and
“This place is far too dirty. You
must clean it

if I am to stay the night.“
I wanted to explain that my home
was made of dirt; that I had
no meat to pro­vide. Yet what
does one say to our sav­ior? My
hand grips the sickle. There are
crops to get in.

The first clause is taken from the first line of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [Tolkien’s trans­la­tion, nat­u­rally] and the “veg­eta­bles are what food eats” was taken from here.