Ruth Foley
Calypso
You were drowning—maybe we both
were drowning. If you believed in
faithful waiting, I could not dissuade you,
surf-stumbled, your tattered knees streaming.
We told ourselves we belonged to shallows
and other comfortable lies. I have a handful
of sticks and a thicket. Fashion a weapon
or an oar. If your stars no longer work
for navigation, I will give you mine. I won’t
remember anything before this island garden
you overturned. I will put a pin in the map
of wherever-we-are and circle it. In the sand
I will draw a compass rose and let the tide
erase it. It could be pointing to anywhere.
*In Greek myth, Calypso was the nymph who enchanted the mariner Odysseus to make him hers forever, but then was forced by the Goddess Athena to let him go because he pined for his wife.
Ruth Foley lives in Massachusetts, where she teaches English for Wheaton College. Her work appears in numerous web and print journals, including Antiphon, The Bellingham Review, The Louisville Review, and Nonbinary Review. Her chapbook Dear Turquoise is available from Dancing Girl Press. She serves as Managing Editor for Cider Press Review.
Calypso
You were drowning—maybe we both
were drowning. If you believed in
faithful waiting, I could not dissuade you,
surf-stumbled, your tattered knees streaming.
We told ourselves we belonged to shallows
and other comfortable lies. I have a handful
of sticks and a thicket. Fashion a weapon
or an oar. If your stars no longer work
for navigation, I will give you mine. I won’t
remember anything before this island garden
you overturned. I will put a pin in the map
of wherever-we-are and circle it. In the sand
I will draw a compass rose and let the tide
erase it. It could be pointing to anywhere.
*In Greek myth, Calypso was the nymph who enchanted the mariner Odysseus to make him hers forever, but then was forced by the Goddess Athena to let him go because he pined for his wife.
Ruth Foley lives in Massachusetts, where she teaches English for Wheaton College. Her work appears in numerous web and print journals, including Antiphon, The Bellingham Review, The Louisville Review, and Nonbinary Review. Her chapbook Dear Turquoise is available from Dancing Girl Press. She serves as Managing Editor for Cider Press Review.
