Calypso

[Standard invocation of any relevant muses available to the poet at this time.]

1.

Unrelenting, a whisper at the back of mind

argues against the whisper external to the body.

The whispers within are not strong or cohesive

enough to make themselves heard over the

steady pulse of the whispers without,

the voice and heartbeat of Calypso.

2.

A heart within the hero's body, a heart outside, but only one drumbeat--

Plain as the sun in the day sky,

Plain as the stars in the night,

Calypso desires that you remain, dear hero,

no longer the hero you once were,

unchanging in her will to detain you,

to bid you bid farewell to the hero's journey,

confined in her domain of beauty,

her sanctuary against the existence of your former life

and the reasons it gave you to go on living.

Lucky you, invited to stay with her and never go out again.

3.

To the hero she offers the end of the road, the search, the fight.

Is that not highly desirable? The end of desire itself?

Her generosity is boundless, to those who stay between her walls.

You will want for nothing, except the life of a hero.

For to stay with her is the opposite of heroism. It's the death of a would-be,

The way in which a hero becomes absolutely and definitely nothing.

Isn't that oblivious void what you wanted? To not be looking out

over your shoulder anymore for enemies who lurk behind every pillar, or

over the horizon at the distant conjunct of atmosphere and water and land,

wanting a wanting itself evanescent and ever beyond

grasp and reach?

Flickering like a starry night seen through drunk eyes,

In and out of existence, but aggravatingly not settling upon

One or the other, what it wants to be, a star or not a star.

The hero couldn't decide, keeps coming back for more, standing up again,

won't stay down, won't quit, keeps chasing.

4.

With Calypso you get absolutes. You get certainty. Clarity, unambiguous.

You'll know exactly who and what you are. Stay with Calypso forever

and you get to stay nothing to yourself and everyone else.

Drop the mantle of the "hero", the titles others have shackled you with

to live up to.

In exchange for unfeeling nothingness, you only give Calypso what she wanted--

your potential for greatness or mediocrity or any outcome in-between.