The Birth of Ulysses by Marvin Bell

The fall of 2008 featured particularly rainy months, netting more than four inches of precipitation above average, including one of Lincoln’s ten wettest Octobers on record. During this soggy autumn, Marvin Bell’s “The Birth of Ulysses”—a poem later nominated for a Pushcart Prize—was featured in Prairie Schooner.

by Tory Clower

The Birth of Ulysses
Marvin Bell

They were asking, “What have we come to?”
when they first saw Circe, and were bleeding
to learn what was out there. They flinched then,
when the boat knocked, and when the waves rose,
it led them to question who among them
were hands fit for the whiteouts of storm water.
They latched the latches and buttoned down.
They pulled on sleeves to sheathe their tattoos
and sat beneath decks riding it out, affecting calm
while milking each story for a hint of landfall.
These who were so earthy sat now in a ring,
each of them locked in fear. Not one who might
incline to an expression of it dared to say so.
They had used all the words they had been given
and now had to invent the story of Ulysses
and picture in their minds the beautiful Circe.