T. R. Hummer is the author of numerous books of poetry and criticism, including Bluegrass Wasteland: Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2005) and The Muse in the Machine: Essays on Poetry and the Anatomy of the Body Politic (University of Georgia Press, 2006). He teaches creative writing and literature at Arizona State University. Minor Epic with a Misread First Line from Yannis Ritsos T. R. Hummer They left me dead down in the plain         where ironweed flailed a turnip field. After the onslaught, this silence: inexplicable,         deeper than the crater where a couple of grunts Played statue. And beyond the smoking differential         of a ruptured manure truck, an ambulance driver Walked, dangling his keys, dragging a siphon.