walking west

tennyson's poem "Ulysses" more and more

rings true for this aged one

always looking for more and more

he talks about the westward flight

towards sunsets and knowledge

so here I sit

olympics in the background

my Penelope on the couch looking golden

the girls out, somewhere

my own girl out, somewhere

a grandson, somewhere

i am in the West 

i was washing around in the Pacific 

just today

after all this

what more knowledge do i need

i am not like Ulysses

the sirens ring tinnitus

scylla shares nightmares

polyphemus promises polyester

those lazy looped eyes of the goddesses

mercury driven wings of whimsy

do not hold me capture

how far did he go, 

back and forth

back and forth

tossed off course

back again

alone,

so alone

in that wine dark sea

I wonder

did he ever catch the sun of flight

and of knowledge

after all of Athena's secrets

after King Helios let sail 

the Phoenician winds

would he have been better

sitting still

meditating

there is something 

to say for home

twenty years yearning

a new kid on the block

he is blond

and when his mother sets him on the sand

he darts towards the gold shore

and stretches his basketball arms towards the blue

the blue is everything

did Ulysses know ahead of time

racing toward home

Penelope would be wearing Dodger Blue

i live in the west - almost as far as you can get

i have a neat tidelog book to look at 

how the waters go from here to there 

with each passing moon

i slumber in the west

i eat in the west

i play in the west

there have been mythical groves of fruit

that for decades americans have

in exodus journeyed from afar

i have tasted the better fruit

with less toil than they

i live about as west as you can get

thinking of those states 

with no coast

i am so unlike Ulysses