my addiction
he says
a finger on my lips
then kissing fears away
he sees the future
he says
I'm in it
I'm all of it
and there's a goal
a four year plan
or really
a seventy year plan
for a life
and a happiness
a wedding with the autumn sunset
and children with alliterated names
a house with a porch in the South
and a Mediterranean cruise
Ireland and Greece and the Caribbean
let's meet early today
making allowances for existence
or survival
and the hope
of truth
he and I
a worry I should ease
because of our Ithaca
a few storms on the sea ahead
curses follow us
but we don't care
only Ithaca
our distant goal
our ship uninsured
but running on passion
we'll make it
only a rocky island maybe
but it's our Ithaca
it's where we want to be

04/24/2003

Author's Note: There are a lot of obscurities in this one. I'm always concerned I don't make sense but this one is supposed to be kind of veiled. Ithaca is the main theme but it doesn't surface until near the end. It's a mythological allusion (I know, I know - I use those all the time) in that Odysseus (or Ulysses if you need Latin) in the Odyssey is struggling to get back to his home, Ithaca. It's his life's goal. Ithaca in that way sort of means Utopia. It's it, if you know what I mean. And I have a relationship that parallels that. Maybe Poseidon'll give us some trouble but eventually we'll make it. The last line is an inside joke via Donnell Jones.

"You must always keep Ithaca in mind: Arriving there is your destination. But do not, by any means, hasten your voyage. Let it last for many years, until, grown old at last, you anchor at your island rich with all you have acquired on the way; You never hoped Ithaca would give you riches. Ithaca has given you a lovely voyage... Now that you have become so wise, so full of experience, you will have understood the meaning of an Ithaca." - C.F. Cavafy

Posted on 04/24/2003
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