Eumaeus 617
The king remarked to the wind,
"what good is the boatman to the gatekeeper?"
in this elder country
no trade is without its nautical concern
from the start we sort
hearts of the unfortunate
and make sober the evil shirts of those
who need their competence explained
(not sufficient that I should know it- but
that you should know I know.)
Of course, you believe yourself to be
a wind merchant - a noticer of
vague creatures
who ought put stop to desire
and such matters of the soul.
Eumaeus 618
O, Galileo, now fingerless rememberer
of belief
you reached for god and were stirred by the sun
contrived you a business of differing
hearing the far horses of truth
you engineered accidents
and arranged the evidence
finally blind
you wrote us a demure sonata
celebrated in simple time
and we were annihilated by its possibility:
the moon is only an opinion
not shared by forgers
the fault, dear Mike, lies in our proverbs.
Eumaeus 619
Madam paid the madman
pianoplayer conspicuous by his
suggestion and observing the friendship of
useful knives
our point-blunt taken up and handeled
was to cut the wind
(or at least break it)
to be remunerated
for our stolen palace
to work against reason
to speak in a low voice
to collect the hands of wives
and to require a difference
between reflections and memory
