Polyphemus

I'm thinking of starting a series of poems based on mythology.  Have already done one on Medusa and John Barth's book Chimera got me thinking about doing some more.

      Polyphemus

1.
Even before my blindness,
my eyesight was not the best.
We one-eyed creatures lack depth
perception and are not known
for our vision’s breadth.

My world was my cave,
my sheep, and my isle, all bound
by the boundless sea. An outcast
of outcasts- my bitter brothers.
shunning me as the bitterest

Since I’d fallen farthest,
from Zeus’s favorite forger
of custom thunderbolts for
all occasions, to the one
he blamed for his own error.

Imprison the armorer
and let the killer go free.
It was He who struck Apollo’s
sons, not my brothers and me,
but what the gods will, will be.

2.
Our visitors are few,
mostly shipwrecked sailors
too scared by our stature
or anything but sobs and screams,
incoherent rapture.

Until one spoke up calmly,
modestly calling himself
No One and offering me
the gift of wine. I promised
to eat him last – as welcome company.
And my reward for sparing
his life? Sharp stick, sharper poke
and the blind rage of betrayal.
“No One has done this!” I roared,
stupid straight man to a stupid joke.

Then I almost had the last
laugh, for No One had his blind
spot, too: his pride calling out
his real name- and my father’s curse.
Ill winds blew his boat from bad to worse.

But his trials turned to triumphs,
his trip became The Odyssey;
my brief infamy sparked his eternal fame.
I became the unsightly sideshow freak
who helped No One make his name.