The Suitors of Penelope

I wrote this last fall; it attacked me in the park. I've reworked the meter, so now it only sort of sucks. As I said after the first draft, when some commenters thought it was a clever, original plot, "No, I didn't write the Odyssey of Homer." (Nor the Iliad, for that matter.)

The bard sang that the vengeful sailor
after 20 years' wandering came home
and killed the men who for all that time
pressed marriage claims upon his suffering wife
or pretended to just to eat her food.
Nothing of the sort.
What killed the suitors
was Penelope's patient love
and enduring hope for his return
and her indifference and contempt
toward them all.
The poison hemlock helped, too.
This is why you never trust a blind poet.