POEMS/ Nostos
Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Odysseus killing the suitors." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1883.
Nostos
homecoming
our home magnet
however powerful
pulls crooked
as the years go by --
home changes
parents old or dead
love mellowed gone or soured
from its ripe beginnings
children grown
their own adventures calling
Odysseus returned to Ithaca
some internal compass
bronze age auto-pilot
guiding him
home after years of pain
both given and received
his spouse, perhaps, unfaithful
his dog grown old with waiting
servant girls corrupted
palace larder empty
howling pack of wolves in his house --
home
Mountain Troubador, 2015
homecoming
our home magnet
however powerful
pulls crooked
as the years go by --
home changes
parents old or dead
love mellowed gone or soured
from its ripe beginnings
children grown
their own adventures calling
Odysseus returned to Ithaca
some internal compass
bronze age auto-pilot
guiding him
home after years of pain
both given and received
his spouse, perhaps, unfaithful
his dog grown old with waiting
servant girls corrupted
palace larder empty
howling pack of wolves in his house --
home
Mountain Troubador, 2015