Shoes From Ithaca

Ithaca to me's a town pop 75

            lost in So. Central Wisconsin

            much unknown but fabled

by distance & distant memories

            small sounds echoing September

            & how Pat's clock ticked

& days moved one into another

            its single asphalted street

            lined with anonymous shops

Library - Gas station - Drug store

            engraved as clapboard &

            smallness middleness America

I've not been back these 50 yrs

            but moved to read its greater

            exploits in literary annals

How Ulysses slew the Suitors

            & before for 20 yrs his only

            thoughts were those of home

Ithaca & Iliad combine

            with Poldy Bloom & Stephen

            last of legendary hero’s

John Huston & proud Algonquin

            Revealing links only now

            in thin trees - blown on a

rail line - saplings, ash & oak

            In a dim green middle western

            out back - & huff & hush

a steam train & 3 small cars

            Pant & pant above & pant

            past a place so impressed

in small talk and similes

            at Mr Olsen's Thom McKann

            where my mom bought me

that 1st pair of moccasins

            & I at 10 became a man

            in a greater fabled world