odyssey

to hold the book is never quite enough
the words must find their way into the mind
but the beginning can be harsh or rough
knowledge we learn is brutal not refined
what the poet says requires that we must think
not of the things that comfort or secure
his words will drive us to the edge or brink
of what we know that's safe and clean and pure
what's inside our heads we tremble to discover
terrors and fears the monsters from the id
the schoolyard bully the discarded lover
we find them staring back from under the lid
we are all that we've met and then some more
but no report's come back from that far shore