2 18 15 20 8 5 18
by DREW SKELTON
The early Dawn was born; her fingers bloomed.
My hunger forces bad choices,
my heart yearns to go back home.
"Where is his native land? His ancestry?"
the people look at me as if I were a god
--and yet you ask why I am here.
Gods give all mortal blessings.
Notes:
Drew remixed words and phrases from Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's Odyssey to reflect particular characters or moments from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This piece recalls Enkidu meeting Ninsun after he has established himself in Uruk as Gilgamesh's equal.
The numbers below the title correspond to Odyssey book numbers. Drew devised the title by associating book numbers with letters of the alphabet (e.g., book 2 = B, book 20 = T). The list of numbers also indicates the book from which each line in the poem has been drawn (e.g., line 1 comes from book 2, line 4 from book 20).
