Ithaca

by Evandar

It seems as though eternity had passed since you were last here,

And for that eternity your thoughts and heart were here instead,

But now with your aged wife and your adult son,

You long for what you left behind.

So many things changed in twenty years,

You grew older,

Smarter,

Colder.

Ithaca was your home,

The life you longed to return to.

Yet now it is not so,

You wish that your journey had been longer,

That you hadstayed with immortal Calypso, or fair Nausicaa,

For Ithaca as it was is naught but your memory,

And its present leaves you cold,

Praying for the days you spent in paradise, but

That you exchanged for your kingdom and hero's welcome.

There is no longer anything here for you to take pleasure in,

That time is gone.

If only your road had been longer,

Or that you had stopped before you reached its end.