![\"Odysseus](\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Odysseus-1024x576.webp\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nby Ron Micci<\/p>\n
it mightn\u2019t have occurred
\nto Odysseus
\nto wear long underwear
\nin the Aegean night
\nif Penelope hadn\u2019t gotten it
\nso perfect and right
\nthe postcards were few
\nand often waylaid
\nher oaths of fidelity
\ntested and frayed
\nTelemachos my son
\ngood steadfast boy
\nsure as the surf spray
\npride and joy
\ntwenty years\u2019 wait
\nis a heck of a stretch
\nwith Poseidon acting
\nthe part of a wretch
\nsurrendered at first
\nto Kalypso\u2019s nymph clutches
\nseven long years
\nwithout help of some suches
\nAthene my proxy took matters to Zeus
\nwho messengered Hermes, thanks, thus I sprung loose
\non a raw sea awash in Poseidon\u2019s old tricks
\nI had one of my own, not with stones but with sticks
\nand lanced out his Cyclops son\u2019s misshapen eye
\nthen returned to the voyage with hopes breasting high
\nthough the snares seemed unending, singing Sirens and such
\nCirce\u2019s hot lusts ever warm to the touch
\nwe forged on ahead, with tough sacrifices
\nScylla the she-monster\u2019s six-headed vices
\na choice between feeding her many-mouthed cravings
\nand risking a whirlpool of Charybdis\u2019 mad ravings
\nlotus-eaters offered narcotic enticements
\nto make us forget the here what and why(ce)-ments
\nand Aeolus, the wind-maker, with his ox-skinned bag
\nunleashed one last insult, one more blast, one more snag
\nbut the shores of Ithaca loomed clear at long last
\nI prayed dear Penelope\u2019s heart had held fast
\nbeset lo these years by a surfeit of suitors
\nwould I still on Olympus have one or two rooters
\nI\u2019d slip through unnoticed on Ithacan shore
\na poor hapless beggar that most would ignore
\nsave an oxherd and swineherd whom I now befriended
\nand this was the prelude, our story soon ended
\nenduring yet insults from Penelope\u2019s suitors
\nI set down the challenge, with few to no rooters
\nwho might string my longbow, a feat of great strength
\nall takers soon failed, and then at length
\nI let fly my arrows, the slaughter commenced
\nlong years of exile, by blood recompensed
\na handful of suitors resorted to spears
\nwhich Athene deflected, to resounding cheers
\nI finished the others, with strong spears alike
\nuntil I had made my final last strike
\nPenelope, darling, come soft in my arms
\ndelivered on high from travails and harms
\nnow let our passions run wild and free
\nme unto you and you unto me
\nas husband and wife, devoted and dear
\nloving and faithful, our hearts ever near
\nour hopes will be buoyed, ecstatic, sublime
\non seas of devotion, for now and all time<\/p>\n
A prolific author of plays, screenplays, novels, poems and short stories, from the comedic to the serious, many available for perusal on the Booksie, Stage 32 and Amazon websites, Ron Micci is a published playwright (Brooklyn\/Heuer Publishers) and former magazine editor. His one-act plays have been staged in Manhattan and throughout the country. His piece \u201cMy Redacted Life\u201d was recently published on the Confetti website and his short story \u201cSnatched!\u201d has been selected for publication this year by The Brussels Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A witty, adventurous retelling of Odysseus\u2019s long journey home, blending humor, heroism, and heartfelt devotion to Penelope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[850,463,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mythology-poems","category-poems-about-life","category-contemporary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}