Brave Ulysses's Lament

Frequenting a chatroom late one night,
A fellow traveler and I conversed,
How his words burned fast and bright!

"I've seen a land of pure delight,
Where everlasting spring abides,
Where happy people forever reside
Immersed in days of talk and laughter,
Immersed in nights of endless pleasure.

"I've seen the golden bridge
Leading to that land,
A golden bridge perpetually in fog,
Ever crossed by an eager throng.
As each member of that procession passed,
Their age, imperfections and all
That'd ever gone wrong
Rose from them to mix into the mist,
So they stepped into the sun
More perfect than indeed they'd ever been,
Eager to wander joyous down
Those avenues of leafy green,
Eager to enter those bars
To drink in gardens of flowers
Brighter than any ever seen.

"I knew my friend,
That I'd be forever cursed,
If I couldn't find my way within."

From upstairs I heard your sleepy voice,
"Honey, it's late, stop working and come to bed."
With his words so filling me with thirst,
I replied, "Soon! Soon! this project's the worst!"

I looked back, it'd only been a second,
But his typing'd filled the window,
"How long I wandered I do not know.
Sometimes I saw that land, sometimes no,
But always it burned inside my mind.

"For a time I traveled with a band
Who played songs of such beauty
As made my heart soar.
One day I saw them cross
Leaving me behind.

"Then I stumbled upon a colony of artists
Whose paintings of young beauty
Made my heart sore.
One day I watched them cross
Leaving me behind.

"I joined a society of visionaries
Whose drugged dreams (much indeed like these)
Made my stomach sour.
One day I watched them cross
Yet I remained behind.

"And I found a young love
Whose words of laughter and wit
Made my soul flower.
Yet one day she too crossed,
And I was left behind.

"At last I stood in the mist, alone,
Looking to that bright and shining land,
I stood upon a rock and wept from longing
And it was as if I saw for the first time -
All about me on the rocky plain
Lay bodies, dead, twisted from pain and thirst
I knew then I'd indeed been well and truly cursed.

"So I gave it up and turned my heart for home.
There, there I found my wife gone,
My children strange and grown,
And I was left with just the remembered shell
Of what I'd never known.
Surely in seeking heaven is hell."

"Idiot," I muttered and filled with restless zest
To other sites took my fevered quest
For images of beautiful girls undressed.