Lamentations of One Who Waits

Hellenic hero, pound the drum;

For epic deeds do overcome

Thy piteous circumstance.

But oh remember thy romance.

For heroes are all well and true

Our warriors guided he on the blue

Calypso cast he thus aside

And Cyclops patience fair he tried

But Odysseus through his virtuous life

Abandoned his fair loyal wife

Penelope, it is to you I speak

For I know that which doth wreak

Havoc on thy soul.

Love’s unfair trade hath taken my heart

And as Odysseus on a mission depart.

For love of God or love of War

Their absence leaves you wanting more.

For serpents though they may infest

Your nest

And crow their loving lamentations-

Those suitors though your lover lives care not for broken heart’s damnations.

To loyalty, my dear, do cling

To loyalty for thy loving king

If thy love is dead

Then let none other wed

Thee than loyalty.

Even the dog abandons hope and lie

And ever loyal to his master die.

But hark who is at door

And shows his lover’s sign once more?

Tis mighty Odysseus and my humble man

Victorious from their battle ran

Back to us their loyal miss

Greeting with a loyal kiss.

I wrote this poem for a class after reading the story of The Odyssey. I was supposed to relate myself to the book somehow, but after a long internal struggle and wondering about how I am somehow similar to Odysseus I realized that I am not like that Hero much at all but rather his beloved Penelope. At the time I felt especially close to her situation since I had been waiting for about a year and a half for my missionary. I understood what it was like to have so many people disregard the loyalty in my heart as useless and futile. People were always shocked that I had waited so long without even dating. And there was usually disapproval in their body language. Since things have since fallen apart with that missionary, people might say that my sense of loyalty is perhaps overdeveloped - that I was a bit dramatic in my poem. But I do not regret how faithfully I waited. Those were not two years wasted. And I was loyal until I was absolutely sure that waiting was indeed futile. And like the dog, I felt like I did die in some symbolic way. I'm no longer the same girl that waited so long for my idealized prince-figure.

But I think that I can take this poem beyond its initial intended use as a declaration of my loyalty to one specific man and say that I am loyal now to love. Love is the best motivation in the world. When we serve with love we are not disappointed. When we serve with love, only the best will do and we become our best. Love is worth fighting for. Love is worth our undying loyalty.