Ulysses
By benignmilitancy
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“Ulysses”
I.
Ulysses:
Your love saved you from the sea—
bright, deathless eyes
filled with gold Penelope—
those crests tumbled the whitest tip of Neptune's beard,
whose teeth trembled the
crust of Gaia with rage.
Some great, stupid thing flared
in your heart,
Ulysses:
Your men were swallowed by time's flare:
time's flare, time's flare, time's flare—of which
Zeus had no hand
and Tiresias no eye.
II.
Bend the bow and nook; release
the arrow—as Time's own arm—poised
to release prison.
The arrow bursts as the key; and in a
mass of crimson light each suitor bowed, one
by one, for those respects he should have
already avowed.
Bones tumbled down the steps; then the beggar threw down
his golden shield and wept.
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