Music Lesson

He is even less well known for his lyre playing, perhaps because his lessons on this instrument ended in disaster. He was taught as a child by Linus … When the teacher struck his pupil for some unrecorded offence, Heracles broke the lyre over Linus' head and killed him on the spot.
— Edward Tripp
That lyre looks all wrong
alongside Heracles'
kind of body.
At lessons,
never a false note
though many wrong ones.
His teacher's instinctive
slap is as much for
his younger self
as for Heracles
who slaughters him
just as instinctively —
always practising
what he does best …
With plenty of attack,
a distinctive style
and perfect execution,
immortality seems certain.