HERO WITH ONE FACE
DAVID WAGONER
They chose me, not that I might learn,
But only because I was born, And gave
me amulets of clay, Some armor and a
brief goodbye.
And at the threshold of the pool, The
looking-glass, the spoiled well, The
hole beneath the whirling tree, I
waited meekly. They called me.
I turned a corner, and was there,
Where all the other places are: The
other side of the cupped moon, Oz.
Heaven-Hell, and the Unknown.
I had too many purposes:
Although they hadn't said, "Find keys,
Find maidens, answers, and lost loves,"
I knew they wanted these themselves,
And I was bound to seek them all Or be
transformed, or die, or fall. All the horned
gods soared by and looked, Hoping to stain
my smallest act.
And there were beasts: three-headed dogs,
Gorgons, ghouls with whirligigs, And
dragons both alive and dead For me to
master, and I did.
I did, and O they brought Her in: My
Mother, the Queen upon a throne, The
Circe with a mouth to fill, The witch
already beautiful.
How could I know Her without pain? I
turned: there sat the evil King, Betrayer,
jealous brother, God. I loved him much more
than I should.
Then Glory rattled from a cloud,
The deaf-and-dumb rose up and cried,
Cripples came striding, golden fleece
Fell from the holy air like lace,
And broken curses rained, and time
Gave birth, gave birth, and returned home
Where all of the unmade desires
Are made at last. And I felt worse,
And I was elected to a boon, A final
wish for every man. I chose what I was
told to choose: They told me gently
who I was.
It scarcely mattered. I lay down And ate the
lotos, kissed my crown, And gazed at Ozma,
Beatrice, And sighed. and was content with
this.
But no—two-legged horses came,
Ogres, winds, and mothers-in-loam,
Provoked husbands with their wives.
Little people with long knives,
The shadows of the underworld; And
all my journey was recoiled, Drawn
back to the uneasy place Where each
benign beginning is.
Now, like Ulysses, master of The world
under, world above, The world
between and one beyond Which was not
near enough to find— I wait, and wonder
what to learn: O here, twice blind at being
born.