OTI:two poems and notes:1/28/17

Open To Interpretation

Present, Past, Future

The present knows
The past,
Easy said.
The present knows the future,
Not so easy read.

Laodamas

"All up and down the long beach,
Distant seen from the
Walls of Troy,
Row upon row
Of shore bound
Wooden Black Ships.
The carpenters were about
Everyday salvaging
From the sea worm ridden
And dry rot deteriorating
Wooden Black Ships
Wood and materials
To keep at least
A few wood ships seaworthy."
Said Odysseus.
"Such is the fate
Of Wooden Black Ships."
Said King Alcinous.
"Just so,"
Said Odysseus
"And we wanted to go home.
We had camped ten
Long years on Llium's shore
Besieged by our own siege.
We had no where to go,
And we were going native.
Families the men
Went to making
With native girls
No sooner we arrived,
Such were the prizes
To be won from the towns
And countryside around Troy.
The beach was swarming with
New kids and new moms,
And their relatives
Providing for us.
We sat on our laurels,
Gossiped and quarreled,
Fought more amongst our selves
Than against the Trojans
Behind their impenetrable walls."
"Tell us of the great wooden horse!"
Said Alcinous.
"Oh, you've heard tell."
Said Odysseus.
"Yes!" said Alcinous,
"How you, Odysseus,
Had fashioned a great wooden horse,
How the Greek heroes hid inside
While all the Greek crews
And their allies
Boarded their Wooden Black Ships,
Sailed away,
Conceding to the Trojans,
Who mistook the Great Horse
For a Greek gift,
And took it inside their walls
To their dismay that night.
The Myrmidons the Horse emptied
That night
And the heroes flattened Troy."
"Oh, you know the tale,
Said Odysseus,
"What can I add?"
Odysseus looked over
The gathered household
Of King Alcinous.
The adults were seated and resting
On the cushioned benches
Surrounding the Warm Corposant,
And satisfied from the evening meal
But hungry to hear the stranger's tales.
Phaeacians usually are
Unpleasant to strangers,
But for a Tale,
And by King Alcinous sympathy
For Odysseus plight
Related by Nausicaa,
They all set aside their old custom,
Death to strangers,
Nausicaa's dread.
She'd fallen in love with Odysseus.
At Odysseus feet were the nobles'
Children, among them Athena,
Hidden, disguised as a village girl.
Odysseus met her gaze,
Her steady grey eyes,
And she smiled a knowing smile.
"Just so it wasn't!"
Said Odysseus.
"It wasn't a great wooden horse,
Just a pony,
And not filled with many heroes,
Just one.
One day,
Of the many long weary days,
We sat relaxed on the beach
While the children ran
Back and forth
Playing Greeks and Trojans
With wooden swords and shields
And small blunted spears.
A hero led the little Greeks.
Pushed by his cohorts,
He rode a wheeled
White wooden pony
With red mane and tail,
Painted and fashioned
By the shipwrights from ship scraps.
We watched, and I thought,
And I thought,
Seeing the little Trojans
About to become victorious
Surrounding the hero on his pony,
And I thought,
And found the pony was hollow,
And you can follow.
I counseled King Agamemnon.
We prepared the boy
On how to lever open the
Great Wall's Gate.
And we gathered up everyone
And set sail in our Wooden Black Ships,
Enough then for everyone
Though fewer ships than we came with,
Attrition being such.
We had nothing to lose,
A small boy hidden in a toy horse
For a wager,
And we could turn right back around.
The Trojans thought it a joy
We were finally gone!
Likely we have
Our gods and goddesses
To thank that the small hero
Did Archimedes proud
And levered the Gate
Open a crack
While all of Troy slept.
We couldn't slay them,
Not after that,
But we did lay the walls flat
And took Helen back
And the Trojan nobles captive.
And the young hero
Is to ever be unsung,
Such is the pride
Of both Greeks and Trojans.
Troy was abandoned."
"You are indeed Odysseus!"
Said Alcinous,
"And no stranger to Phaeacians!"
Alcinous motioned to an attendant
Who with a corposant lantern
Shed light on a darkened corner
Of the Palace's Great Room.
There stood
The white and red wooden pony.
"Phaeacians too were
On that forsaken beach,
My son your hero."
"Just so,"
Said Odysseus,
"The world not told."
"And for the best."
Said King Alcinous.

DolphinWords

Notes:oh, I misspelled DolphinWords, DolphinWhorlds!...reference King Alcinous, his son Laodamas, the Odyssey, and an odd dream I had of kids playing war, one on a white pony!...oh, and reference white horses...and the song 'six white horses'...and spindle whorl!

:)

DavidDavid