Circe

in the wind my skin

Clumsy feet and cracking sticks

led them to Circe's house of cut

and dressed stone this warm home

of the goddess was set in a clear

zone in the dense folder of trees

Gods leap backwards look

wolves with lolling tongues

ignored our bristling spears

gambolled up to our feet tails

wagging reared up on their

hindlegs and licked our shields

lions rolled on the ground

welcomed these new friends

to their circus of bewitched men

while our men waited, still

as the air

they could feel

her clear Circe voice emerge like

a moist silver weave needle tracing

song patterns lingering birds in their

swoopings leave for her fingers

to glisten in sprinkling azure

emerald & ebony in

to enter her delicate never ending

fabric of gold & gossamer laughing

Polites pulled by her voice of moist

silver called them to follow him

through her shining doors opened

slowly to beckon them lips

thick with sound into the enchanting

offered them cushions & chairs covered

with skins of soft strange animals then fed

them a mixture of cheese barley black wine

& honey ground to a paste with an extract of

pungent insects so potent & sad it corroded

the spring of their strong tongues sinking

slowly & seeping into their bones to soften

their sharp heartache for their homes

as she clouted them one by one j

with her black stick

bellies swelled

neck skins bristled

sniffed their thick

pigstench saw their

own & their friends

hands clench in horror

and tighten into pigsfeet

clattering across marble floors

she penned them to snout acorns

berries hogsfilthy wallow together

PORTRY

held back by his fears, his distrust of

strange music that loosened his thighs

Eurilochus

cautious of the least pleasure in his five

senses (in particular touch) saw his men

enter the house while he waited outside

with the hours trampling his heart

then slowly returned through

the forest to fetch Odysseus

Belted my armour on, the weight of my

bronze sword cooling my skin. Come

Eurilochus, I said let us ask or

even force her to release them

No, he cried, do not go

her voice is, he said, looser

than music to grapple with

like glue it will swallow you

left him then with the rest

of our men to guard our black ship

and pressed on through the forest

with my heart pounding alone

to the time of my feet to find

the house of dressed stone

a fish eagle circling

the deep blue

slow sea

suddenly plunged towards

me saw me and gracefully

switched into a swallow

Hermes

god of omens, broke

open the air, appeared

as a youth with fair

hair & blue eyes, spoke

to me... odysseus

Beware of the curse of her mouth

pursed like a dark song

will hog you to wallow forever

unless you obey my advice

First she will kiss your feet and caress

your tired limbs as you enter her house

seat you and feed a mixture of dangerous

musk past your teeth like a delirious

ghost in your throat she will rise to seize

and anaesthetise your heart

POBTRY

Quick whip your sword out but

touch her only with metal until

her body

softer than music asks you to

play with her

but first make her swear not

to sink her lonely teeth permanently into

or in any other way maim you . . . odysseus

To protect me Hermes reached with ease

through the earth to uproot the black tuber

of molu, the milk white flower

which I chewed

bitter heat overpowered my face

bent close to the smell of the ground

as the God disappeared

Heavy the weight in my chest

heavy my limbs my feet

bowed down they carry my arms

my genitals tight can feel

her file her nails the bite

of her teeth will meet the iron

that coats my mouth will taste

will drain the rust in my blood

will darken the rasp on her tongue

will feel the weight in my chest

will strain to beat to beat to beat

With a low voice Circe

with alow voice I called to the Goddess

outside the house _I see

her open her doors I see

the marble floors dreading her eyes

dreading her face _I see

she led me in I follow her feet

to sit me down on a silver throne

I hold the arms embossed and carved

she kissed my feet caressed my limbs

she mixed her musk in a cup of gold

Drink it down I held the throne

Drink she said in a low command

Drink it down I drink I drink

I drowned my heart I felt it groan

against the tide I felt my feet

my feet are mine secure at last

she strikes at my heart

which beats faster and faster as I

suddenly draw my bare sword hard

against her left breast forced her

to fall at my knees & raise up from the floor

the black opals of her eyes & cry to me

How can a plain seaman

resist this darkness I kissed

past your teeth to hurt and

trap your heart squeezed

tap tap in my palm

must be wily Odysseus come

back from Troy to rip up

the savage satin of the sea

Hermes warned me

patiently

to persuade you to ease your sword

in its sheath and let you slide into

me slowly and unwind beside me as

gradually as the sad sea in a storm

breaks quartz into soft layers of sand

Swear first on your sacred curse Circe

not to fasten your tongue or thirsty teeth

into my scrotum drawn in grimly as

the seething sea as I sink into you

Come sailor she said as she pulled my hand

could feel the warm dome of her belly

is firmly moving the sea you are

waves in the sand

outspread wings

in the wind my skin

will swell and fill

in the well in my belly

there

gently Odysseus

where she cried out

this cast iron fist in my chest

is beating my breath

look, I open my mouth

with her mouth and I lie

with my

tongue by the side of her tongue

which rears

blue belly swollen

and subsides

folded

She lies quiet in her throat song

She lies sleeping round the soft soft body

snug chuckle in her throat fucked a woman laugh

and her smell of her nose softly sway poked in her belly

the full of her eyesmile (Homer said all this happened

in the Spring) the skin warm and smoothing under my hand

buried a hug reappeared no distance which is my side

of the touching