Apr 20, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry

 Questions For A New Odysseus
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

All those years ago
Before you were ashes and dust
Before that muddy river bore you
Downstream, before more loss,
Before returning to mundane life,
Did you fall in love?

Did you see a demure golden lady
Perfect and pretty, full of
Doe-eyed allure, swing
Into your irregular orbit?
Did you fall in love or lust?
Did you remember your wife?
Did you remember your child?

Did you fling caution to the winds?
Did you say, “I’m damned anyway,
Might as well give in.   My life
Brought some joy, but now
All is pain.  I shall surrender –
My flesh is willing, my soul sore.
I need some love.”

And if you did, did it bring
Some joy, some peace, some
Shutting out of remembered loss?
Was there quiet oblivion,
A slow blotting, an erasure
An obliteration?
Did it all scatter like
Dandelion seeds on a
Wayward wind?

If it did, I am glad for you.
But if it did, why return?

And if you did resist, I hope
It brought you satisfaction.
And I hope your return home
Was worth it in the end,
Despite all the gods’ conniving
To fell you in your prime,
Despite all the storm-tossed
Terrors, the betrayals of friends,
The endless suffering you wrought
For yourself and others.

And I am glad for you that you
Came home, and I cannot imagine
How you survived it all.

So broken, so brave,
So ambiguous, so good
So full of doubt,
So full of faith,
So full of wanderlust
So full of homesickness
So full of unfulfilled dreams
So full of familial love
To enfold you, and hold
You until the day
You passed away.

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Tags: #ANewOdysseus, #NaPoWriMo, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #The Odyssey