acceptance

tele got accepted
to some east coast college
where dawn
spreads her limbs
in rose above the atlantic

too bad for odysseus
who, always on his westward journey,
would now need athena's help
if he were to at all visit his son
away at school

and what will you major
he texted tele
on his new iphone 4s
talking to his son telemachus

O had secret thoughts
of his son studying
greek scholar of philosphy
languages latin greek
history literature

he received tele's text:

     idk really dad
     but i was thinking
     accounting,
     business,
     computer science
     omg
     gtg
     ttyl

and with this,
O's screen went blank
then to his familiar wall paper
catamaran palm trees

O was left thinking
of his faithful swineherd
Eumaeus
who after twenty years
had carefully attended
his sheep never giving up
on the return of his master

and also, of his uncle raymond
a man who loved to mix and pour concrete
and raymond's father in law, john
who mastered in blue prints
for plumbing construction
and of a priest who would make house visits
bringing out the best of his scotch
and of mick the fire man
who read more books in one year
than a new yorker editor
and of his cousin johnny
baking bread for a living
and burney bangasser the policeman
who ended up mowing lawns
and two blonde surfers
who became cabinet makers
and of a sister who worked at wal mart
and of all those teachers in the family
and the ones who worked at stores
pizza houses, insurance firms,
english professors of english pens in pockets,
mrs. mickleson,
the sisters habits,
the trw workers,
the standard oil fare,
the smell of mud on the plumbers khaki pants,
and all of whitman's salt of the earth americans

he will make a lot of money Odysseus,
said Penelope
he will
said Odysseus, sadly
what is wrong Odysseus?

one thing i learned
stranded at sea for so long

the world turns too fast
you notice when you slow it down

this gadgetry of his generation
shall create new floods

of biblical proportions

silly odysseus, said penelope,
the bible hasn't even been written yet

now will you text your son back
he obviously misses you

o was deeply confused
his feelings torn

how do you work
this thing again he asked penelope

   




   
   

how waves work for surfers

the storms have ceased
      and their they sat
            oars still
blue all around

wind so small
      they heard the boats wood creak
             fostering images
of gods upset

the boats sat still
     quiet
           slap of water
     quiet
slap

a gentle rocking
      slap
           water on water
       against bow
slap water slap

intervals
    22
       seconds

swells
     5
   foot
glass

then,
      they rowed,
                       the ocean slowly undulating
                                         until
                       they saw the spray
       white arcs
salt calm

odysseus
   was
      the
        first
          to
            grab
               his
                  green
                     vardeman
                        and
                           paddle
                              in

the old days

twenty years is a long time
but sometimes Odysseus thought
back to even earlier times

next to groves
carrying sage green
the silver slant of olive leaf

bricks to bake
bread
a thriving business he owned

the bakery
a co-operative
began by the elders

in their younger days
laertes, mentos, nestor
with their children

agamemnon, odysseus, orestes
their dogs, their sheep
all it took to bake

and now, in the boat
adrift
those who remembered anything
bantered their stories:

you would never
lubricate the oven with graphite

they were using
suspended graphite

pasta and wine
might have been involved

you have to grease the
chain after every shift

laertes pushed my face into a pan
of hot dough in the steam room then called me an oaf

he was tough that laertes
knew how to run a business

how dare you besmirch laertes
you shirker of important responsibility

agamemnon would drink
full mixing bowls of coffee

he ate
coffee beans all day

i once crewed a ship with a guy who
got a large iced coffee made with 16 shots

of espresso
everyday - he ordered a "quad quad"!

he also ate raw
cloves of garlic

mentos ran the store
easy fare

he was of the bourgeoisie mind set
merchant like instincts

counter revolutionary
deserves observation

nestor was something
i once saw him throw a pan of bread

against the wall
because it was all sticking

his brow was thunderous
murderous bolts of dough

what about the ferret souled Manx
of Eumaeus

i had forgotten
human art in near equilibrium

back to those graphite
misses

misses should be documented
laertes would say

O stopped the conversation suddenly
as you, reader, may have already
stopped reading

i remember
even as a kid

telling my father
we should slice the bread

father, and then
they wouldn't have to

he laughed
like Dionysus

we could put it in bags
for them to keep fresh

he laughed
like Dionysus

O looked
from the middle of that sea

he thought of those
good days

his father
strong, happy, almost king of ithaca

he remembered the release
of bread pollen from the bricks

the mesmerize of fire
the blaze of the bricks

the smell of the chain
as he graphited

the golden grain
the black molasses

all this he thought
there in the middle

the wide wide sea
bluer than the rye label

he colored one night
for the introduction of a bag

he would make his father so proud
he would missed his father

in this ridiculously wide
wide sea

Eurylochus
raise the beams

lets set sail
before sunset

alive and tanning #2

who is this co-pilot I sit with

pores releasing

rivulets of liquid summer?

her suit jives in red

jiggles in tan

next to a white volleyball

i remember her from somewhere

close -athena? aphrodite? nausikka?  daphne?  paula?

I have seen her before

was she in the surf this morning

with a yellow board

and a smooth glide?

low in her beach chair

soft angles

slight turn of head

anchor of the moment

and there are others all around

moveable feast

someone brings me another drink

it is cold

rivulets again

i like santa monica

good place

let us stay here awhile

suddenly,

she turns to me, hair the color of sunlight

eyes like glass, skin the morning beach

she is out of my reach

out of my reach

my reach