The Tale of the Modern Odysseus by Asiya Gendron

Words cannot describe the horrors my father faced lost at sea.

The endless waters tried to consume him and his heart was never free

Of the desperation he felt eating at his soul,

He thought of his wife and son

His only lifelines

Time almost ceased to flow,

The endless cycle of the sun and moon the only constant in his life

The waves that brought him there

Seemed cursed by God

The seasons passed in an incessant flow

He almost got a malady from seeing

Spring become winter and wind become snow

Far in the distance an island arose, Hope blossomed in his heart

His mind proposed that it was an illusion but his heart said something else

The countless days at sea will come to an end

There was a woman there, on the island

He realized with despair

That he couldn’t return

The woman said she was abandoned

On this island as a child

She told him she will help

Get him to mainland

They gathered wood

What little there was

To make a boat

To take him home

Back at home

A wife was mourning and a child was crying

She thought that he was dead

And her heart was shred

I his son, set out to find him, looking for him from

dawn to dusk, morning to night

Praying that he was alive

They managed to make a boat, the woman and my father

Too many years away from his family

Will come to an end.

The father came back on a bright day

That was almost as bright as the smiles on the faces

Of his wife and son

His only lifelines.