Leonard Nathan
Family Circle
When I left Ithaca
for the great action
I was clean-cut, smartly
purposeful and nice
by inexperience.
I thought I'd be back soon
because the earth is flatly
a circle, but found,
though you want to go straight,
what survives is bent.
Well, here I am finally,
beat-up pilgrim to a homely shrine,
my bare rock and old woman
willing glumly to receive what I offer—
a scar and a tall story.
I see my son's eyes lift slyly
from his plate, asking what it was for—
struggle, shipwreck, and such lies.
It was for this, sonny, this:
my eating and your asking.
Leonard Nathan, Dear Blood, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980.