Ulysses you scumbag go ahead stuff
your REI pack take off with your new
buddies – you didn’t manage to bring
the old ones back, with them turned
into pigs or done in by scylla, charybdis
who raised your son for twenty years?
little Telly was one when you left to fight
a friend’s war now he’s a grown man you
moan about sitting idly by a still hearth
you might bestir yourself to throw a log
on the embers – and “matched with an
aged wife” well, you’re not narcissus
anymore yourself – besides you could’ve
been home in a few years if you hadn’t
spent one dallying with circe seven more
with calypso while here I had to fool the
greedy grabbers who wooed your wealth
and wife by weaving my wedding shawl
by day ripping it out again by night – my
excuse to stay truesy blue – as for meting
laws unto a savage race? it’s labor to be
boss these plebes seethed taking orders
from a gal – I don’t see you now toiling
over taxes tithes tweets – since I know
(you say) computers, the cloud, why
need you learn? so go drink life to the
lees smite those sounding furrows
though zeus knows I could do a little
smiting myself I’ll have some fun
now the tiresome suitors are slain
(your one act of dominance) – I’ll gaze
on untravell’d lands though they may
be no farther than ithican shores – oh
and don’t forget argos-he revived
after the shock of your return keeps
piddling his heart-worm pills are
third shelf in the vomitorium –
purple bottle on the left
2019 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2019.
