MICHAEL DENNIS MOONEY -- new writings

Backwards ran sentences
In your new poem --
Did Odysseus tread backwards
On his long marches home?

Well, yes, he got diverted
(Ahem) by witchy, wily Circe.
Yet then he strode forth manfully
To get home to Penelope.

She, hearth to his heart, still prized him;
He, aged, -- one hardly recognized him! --
Still had command of his warrior's bow.

Haunted like conches by seduction's songs,
His distracted ears reverbed the sirens.
But his arrow split the targe straight through.

Yes, he went straight forward when he rode
His chariot up dusty Ithaca Road;
He only went backwards when he hoed.

(Fine, he also went backwards when he ... r-o-w-e-d.)