Greek Myth

Through chalk lids
Like Tiresias I gaze at an azure blur;
A horizon assured through books and prophets
Three miles beyond the golden bay’s sleepy smile
Its sapphire shivered
With inseparable sea and sky

Somewhere beyond a fleet sailed for Troy;
Odysseus tricked the giant Polyphemus;
Theseus killed a fearless Minotaur,
And Heracles accomplished twelve impossible labours

And one day too, my foot would step into
Diomede’s sandal; would stride, armless
With Heaney’s sword,
And carve, like Achilles, through the old foes
Lethe and Limos
Emerging, as Perseus
Brandishing the Medusa’s head
Before astonished Polydectes

But Time is a bloodless creditor
And interest in history now wanes
To a greater obligation
And my Astyanaxian eyes look skyward
From the battle’s crud
Below those invaded walls

Statuesque, by Penia’s chisel
Listening to the songs of Eris,
Like a boatless Telemachus,
I watch the tide recede

Oh sweet Troy
3000 years we waited
Anticipating that return voyage
But the blur offered nothing