Odysseus Transported

 

        for Dr swan

I am Ulysses.  I reject this form

they gave me at Admissions.  I have no

local address.  I do not care to show

Proof of Insurance.  Driven by a storm

to castellated strangers is the norm

for me, but no immortal set aglow

a light like this, half green.  Nothing could grow

on ground so square, so cold, innkeeper warm.

A smell of medicine, a sea of white.

I am Ulysses, ill but not deceived.

I am accustomed not to be believed.

I shall recite this on the bloody night

I send them here, their women sorely grieved

to lose their heroes in this sickly light.