The Bow and the String


She bends

She is strong

He stretches

He is strong

Penelope bends her head and waits

She bends the truth and says

It's only this veil I need done

Odysseus stretches his men

He stretches his luck, his lease with the gods

He stretches his mind to Penelope over the sea

The bow waits unstrung in Ithaca

The string cannot reach

No man in the land is a match for that bow

Only be strong; the string

In its home in the bow will sing