Penelope’s Song Little soul, little perpetually undressed one, do now as I bid you, climb the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree; wait at the top, attentive, like a sentry or look-out. He will be home soon; it behooves you to be generous. You have not been completely perfect either; with your troublesome body you have done things you shouldn’t discuss in poems. Therefore call out to him over the open water, over the bright water with your dark song, with your grasping, unnatural song----passionate, like Maria Callas. Who wouldn’t want you? Whose most demonic appetite could you possibly fail to answer? Soon he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime, suntanned from his time away, wanting his grilled chicken. Ah, you must greet him, you must shake the boughs of the tree to get his attention, but carefully, carefully, lest his beautiful face be marred by too many falling needles. ** As every stay at home mother knows or really every woman knows---men have this endless fascination with being a hero. Who knows why? In any case a man will leave his cutie and as the poet says here go off and then come back “from wherever he goes in the meantime,” while his cutie is dallying with other home bound men—and bring back his troublesome requirements for “grilled chicken.” I know all about the grilled chicken requirement. But I make boiled potatoes. It is better for my hero. But we are not talking about me here. We are talking about the quintessential woman—Penelope—that little darling—who is waiting –I seem to think –less than faithfully –if the poet’s lines are to be believed –“You have not been completely / perfect either; with your troublesome body” no doubt wrecking havoc among the menfolk stabled at home. And so the poet counsels Penelope that since she has been equally as flighty as Odysseus –well then—she should pony up to him when he comes home and make much of his travails and not shower his perfect body with pine needles but get his attention smoothly ----“carefully, carefully, lest / his beautiful face be marred / by too many falling needles.” She is to be generous about his heroic endeavors that have forced her to make do with whoever is left at home. The poet reminds Penelope that she is irresistible and can charm her returning man –not only with that grilled chicken he is lusting for –but also with her “dark song” which is so “grasping / unnatural" – that it is enough to turn a man’s head from wondering about her unruly antics while he was gone –those matters that the poet refers to earlier in the poem—“things you shouldn’t / discuss in poems” and instead have him focused on the myth in his head of the faithful and "perpetually undressed" wife. The poet tells Penelope to adopt the stance of faithful spouse—she tells her to "climb / the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree;" and pretend to have been waiting there as a look out wife. She tells Penelope to be a foghorn and perpetually (or at least just before he arrives) to –“call out to him over the open water, over the bright water” as if she had been doing this forever than than just for an hour or so—and she tells her to “greet him,” but be sure to be seductive about this greeting –“you must shake the boughs of the tree / to get his attention”—so that he looks up—finds her ensconced in the tree and then is predictably ---overcome with passion and all thoughts of her flightiness are vacuumed out of his head by her lissome patience on a tree shelf. Right. Such a fun poem. And it depicts men and women so clearly here. For here is the female---the "little perpetually undressed one," the seductress of male conception and here is the hero--the one with the "most demonic appetite" who first wants his chicken meal before his wife--and there you go. Modern love.

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