after Nanos Valaoritis
I am an Olympian, an ordinary Olympian
In the musical entitled The Olympian
Produced by an Olympian producer
For Olympian audiences
In an Olympian theatre
With an Olympian cast
Casted by Olympians
In the Olympian language
With Olympian stage settings
And Olympian accents
Spoken by Olympian men in Olympian costume
Surrounded by Olympian women
Singing Olympian choruses
Written in an Olympian Summer by Olympians
We uncorked the vintage Olympian wine
And toasted from crystal Olympian flutes
To gold-gilded Olympian prowess
‘Mighty is the ordinary Olympian!’
The one who I spoke of in the beginning
The one with the Olympian curse
The curse of all Olympians
Sponsored by Olympian executives
Twizzling their prim Olympian moustaches
It was not really him at all
It was some foreign non-Olympian
Impersonating an Olympian
What has become of us
A proud nation of Olympians
And not one Olympian left
To call themselves a true Olympian
And yet the Olympian furnace burns
And the Olympian cyclops stares quizzically
While the Olympian tv buzzes
With encores of Olympian fireworks
And the golden Olympian postbox teems
With Olympian acronyms
And the gyration of Olympian eateries
Diet our heroic Olympians
None more so than King Usain
Draping an arm over the shoulder of Boris
The great Olympian director
Who directs the London musical
I mentioned at the beginning
The one called The Olympian
James Byrne
Image: Claire Palmer