Eumaeus 640
Heart, will you still be possible
when yesterday is suddenly missed?
will you always astound somehow, speak
and falling like some profligate star
like years of duty, so wedded to a piece of affection?
Heart, so elder and such the
travelling eye leading you fondly through
the weeks and years you
speak of trains in the night
of age and life
and see the best lies
in all your neglected arguments
Eumaeus 641
The suffering of common animals
is often misunderstood
the dog remembers the spoil as well
as the mistake
he has not years but only this neglected moment
only conclusion and causes
his faith is often sorely strained
and cruelty is an incurable event
approaching a mistake
he risks conclusion in order
to be cured of reason
his idea of fate
is an idea of water,
it will not hold him from departure.
Eumaeus 642
eventually, God became a cynic
its pessimism beckoned
accompanied by all those beautiful
chambers of fate
it was left shaking in the vicinity of home
standing near a shanty in Blarney
with a revolver in its overcoat
feeling the pleasure of it in its hands
thinking a plan of blood
sailing on a sea of grass
failed calculations in its frozen marrow
becalmed in these silent years
