Kyger, Joanne

The Pigs for Circe in May

1. I almost ruined the stew and Where
2. is my peanut butter sandwich I tore through the back of the car
3. I could not believe
4. there was One slice of my favorite brown bread and my stomach and
5. I jammed the tin foil and bread wrappers into the stew
6. and no cheese and I simply could not believe
7. and you never
8. TALK when my friends are over.
9.  
10. This is known as camping at Yosemite.
11.  
12. Already I wish there was something done.
13. Odysseus found a stag on his way to the ship
14. I think of people sighing over poetry, using it,               I
15. don’t know what it’s for. Well,
16.  
17. Hermes forewarned him.   Can you imagine
18. those lovely beasts all tame   prancing around him?
19.  
20. She made a lot of pigs too.
21.  
22. I like pigs. Cute feet, cute nose, and I think
23.  
24. some spiritual value investing them. A man and his pig together,
25. rebalancing the pure in them, under each other’s arms, bathing,
26. eating it.
27.  
28. And when the time came, she did right
29. let them go
30. They couldn’t see her when she came back
31. from the ship, seating themselves and wept, the wind
32. took them directly north, all day
33. into the dark.
34.  
35. at least they were moving again
36.  
37. Sometimes I just go hobbling up and say
38. Just a little Food, please.   Usually a piece of bacon or toast
39. the coffee curling up in the pine groves of Yosemite.
40. There is a rock wall
41. in the night
42. animals and something hot and dank on the sand trail
43. in the sun;
44. waste
45. Odysseus went down and got his comrades
46.  
47. ‘Circe says it’s ok to stay.’
48. And they were freely bathed and wined.
49. She had a lot of maids and a staid housekeeper.
50. I mean, I admire her.   The white robes
51. and keeping busy
52. She fed her animals
53. wild acorns, and men crying inside
54. with a voice like a woman
55. from the sun and the ocean
56. She is busy at the center, planning out great
57. stories to amuse herself, and a lot of pets,
58. a neat household, gracious
59. honey and wine
60. She offers.
61. Purple linen on the chairs
62. Odysseus mopes
63. ‘Oh, I’ll give you your bores back’   They weep to see each other
64. a black ram
65. and a young ewe and the ship to hell
66. where Persephone has left only one man with reason
67. She doesn’t hold them back
68. a young man dies
69. that is his fault.
70. And she asked him to stay
71. climbing all day
72. pushing
73. strewn with boulders
74. the great leap it makes
75. into space, giddy he rushes at her
76. the roar he makes
77. on the wide shelf bed
78. they both watch over the edge
79.  
80. and the Great Pigs waddle off in the sky—