Penelope at the door

or Penelope on the shore

knows no-one’s coming home.

The house is over-run with

idiot suitors; the slaves

build coracles that each day

sail further and further out.

The birds of prey nest low;

their eyes measure her for

carrion. Carry on. No-one’s

coming home, but no-one. No-

one’s coming home.

Megan Clayton, better known as Harvest Bird after her eponymous blog, is a writer and university teacher from Christchurch. Her poems are short lyrics in the late modern style, from whose practitioners, past and present, she draws inspiration. 

Megan is also the poet in residence at Bat, Bean, Beam - Giovanni Tiso's weblog on memory and technology. You can read more of her work, and the story of how the partnership evolved, here.

I have a personal fascination with Ithaka and the Odyssey. I love the repetition and the rhythem of this piece and the image of the slaves sailing further out in their coracles every day.

For more Tuesday poems visit the hub.