On Dry Land

© Matthew Word Bain

is this the temple whose building was prompted
by some earthbound peasant inquiring of Odysseus
why he was carrying on his shoulder a winnowing staff
or whether it was the blade of a windmill
never having seen an oar?

for here is a place
where libations to Poseidon
must abound should he wander so far inland
as to work up a thirst among these followers who know not the sea