AUFIDIUS

Aufidius

By Kit Thurston-Mathews

O that I had him 

With six Aufidiuses, or more, his

tribe  To use my lawful sword. 

He watched Coriolanus stand  

centred to the room  

turning the hilt of the sword in his palm

as the conspirators roared for his life.  

Treason to the Volsces 

but what of the treason  

to Aufidius’s own heart? 

He cried out thin insult 

with the angry chorus 

bringing Coriolanus’s gaze to him 

willing him to remember 

their blood hot fight in  

Volscian ruin 

needing to understand why  

Rome was chosen over him.  

He was given no sure answer, only

the steady and purposeful look 

of a man with volition 

even now 

even as the swords were drawn 

through his chest. 

Aufidius could not watch him fall.  

He held vigil until burial 

watching Coriolanus lowered  

strangely delicate 

into a soft sanded grave 

set with the armour and spoils  

of a great captain.  

First verse taken from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Act V Scene VI.