Mike "Pops" Klumpp

In light of the recent release of the film The Odyssey, I went back into the archives and old boxes of poetry and dredged this poem up from the past. Once upon a time, it won some award. Other than the public reading at the award ceremony, it was never published, seen or heard.

odysseus pardoned:

odysseus pardoned
frodo forgiven
and the end of time in view

without gollum's teeth
the ring remains
without judas?
and so without the end of time
there is no journey
no search no segment no sense of urgency
odysseus travels and never returns
his house falls captive 
and sweet penelope
lies tainted upon the banquet table
telemachus
telling time with a stick
playing shadow with the sun
returns
to his childhood
a man
a brown sack
and a bottle
(welch aid and rubbing alcohol)

standing in the dirt
next to the stoop
waiting to lie to friends
of adventures
unembraced
and checks in the mail

we are a destiny without heroes
a land without time
and our journey is neverending

but for the embrace of the moment
we lie spent
disgraced
and unconcerned

no honor
no horror
only time 

odysseus,
please return.
your sins will be forgotten
your eccentricities pardoned
your passions embraced as a mad zeal for living
kerouak needs you
ginsburg needs you
telemachus needs you
frodo needs you
and the bottle
is almost empty.