Goodbye Again



Odysseus never got home, you know
not really

Yes, yes, he landed on Ithaca and made his way to his house,
revealed himself to Penelope & made love to her after 20 years
then awoke to slay the houseful of suitors
and, dripping in their gore,
was on the cusp of unleashing the horrors of a ten-year siege
on his home

his home

when Athena appeared and sent him away
she sent him to a place where the people didn't sail in ships
and wouldn't even know what an oar was for
where ever that was--
but he had to sail away again to find it

and then walk
who knows how far or how long
further and further from Ithaca
from Penelope, Telemachus & his aged father

he couldn't be home
he had fought too long
and journeyed too far
and lost too much
to be a husband, a father, a son
to ever have a home again


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