I used to hold Penelope in contempt
Her weak-willed waiting
All the raveling and unraveling
Just to maintain uncertainty
I called her a woman of inaction
Twenty years later, I see her anew
All her raveling as cunning
She waged her own war in her time
I realize perhaps more than ever
She mastered early the only way to make a life
Weaving and unweaving ourselves
Posing and solving our own riddles
Is she as strong as Odysseus?
I know now it requires as much strength
To stay behind waiting as to sail ahead.
suelarkinsweems ’15
Orders came through this morning: South Carolina bound in July 2015. Let the raveling and unraveling begin again.
