Odysseus
Restored to wife and hearth from years adrift,
You pledge another voyage for the gift.
The god you angered when you maimed his son
Decrees the trespass shall not be undone
Until you reach a distant country and—
Leaving your ship behind you on the sand,
Wagering your weary life far inland, where
No one has ever breathed the salted air—
Do, as the prophet bid you, one deed more,
Planting a lone, propitiating oar.
Epyllia
i.
Wrath of the hero
doomed Troy. Sing, Muse, how he cut
down the horse tamer.
ii.
Arms went with the man
from Troy to Carthage to Rome.
(Turnus: to Hades.)
iii.
Halfway through his life
he climbed up from Hell
to the beatific stars.
iv.
Of the mortal fruit
we tasted. Out of Eden
Michael showed the way.
v.
Pick through poets' bones
and find the same old story:
De te fibula.
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