"She is ambivalent, variously calling out for Artemis to kill her and, apparently, considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe shafts may have her hand. 'For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero.'" --Bernard Knox, introduction to Robert Fagles's translation of The Odyssey (1996:55).
I would wait ten years or twenty
If I knew you would return
And like Penelope
Would be an island
And undo all the weaving done the day before
To delay my wedding day
And forestall any suitors
If I only had a certainty
But now my hope feels hopeless
And I wonder if
I am stalling the tapestry
For a man that will never come
A man that will be lured away by sirens
Who may not see the wisdom in wax and moly
For stopping up ears and warding off nymphs
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
UNTITLED
the flowers are mostly gone
but I still feel compelled to stop and smell
the blossom that remains on the branch
that's the part of me that existed
when peonies bloomed in the Square
the part of me that stopped--
supported by your arm--
and loosed a pebble from my shoe
before lifting my favorite flower to my face
except my love for you didn't exist then
now both parts of me stay on the stem
never to die very soon
but I still feel compelled to stop and smell
the blossom that remains on the branch
that's the part of me that existed
when peonies bloomed in the Square
the part of me that stopped--
supported by your arm--
and loosed a pebble from my shoe
before lifting my favorite flower to my face
except my love for you didn't exist then
now both parts of me stay on the stem
never to die very soon
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
GOING TO THE DRIVE IN
the neon sun
shuttered behind misty blinds
seduced me to the horizon
with its wide pink glow
and sunk before i could reach it
but his sister rose to meet me with her clean face
and offered what the sun would deprive
shuttered behind misty blinds
seduced me to the horizon
with its wide pink glow
and sunk before i could reach it
but his sister rose to meet me with her clean face
and offered what the sun would deprive
WAITING FOR THE SUN
Painfully green
and ready for the sun to shine
but the rain insists on delaying
its coming
and whetting my appetite
with its romance
and ready for the sun to shine
but the rain insists on delaying
its coming
and whetting my appetite
with its romance
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