Scoundrel Time

Introductions: Telemachus Dreaming of Telemachus Dreaming

of Telemachus dreaming, not of Odysseus, of
a man whose name is not
                                        Odysseus: this man’s
one name’s not not Odysseus, either, nor
man whose name is not Odysseus. Odysseus

is not the dreamed-up man whose name is man
whose name is
                        not Odysseus. Somewhen, Odysseus
claims his name’s No Man. But no man but
Odysseus is the man whose name’s Odysseus
& if there is, lucid Telemachus thinks,
a man named man whose name is not Odysseus,

he’s no man. O

let’s let the goddess introduce them: Telemachus,
Odysseus, Odysseus,
                        Telemachus. That man whose name
is not Odysseus & not not Odysseus,
that man who’s not Odysseus—he’s Telemachus.