Odysseus’s Mother-in-Law
Oakum seals the gaps as if a boat would talk,
people go down
to the very close walls of it and sniff
and row the seams with oakum and the ocean
dares not make a sermon of it,
though the boards be as tight as an old woman,
the old woman complains
though the boards be as tight as an old woman,
the old woman complains
up and down the deck, and further, that microwaves will wave
right through it, saying the hellish part—
right through it, saying the hellish part—
