Elpenor

He had always been undisciplined. The night they heard they were going home, he drank heavy and slept on the roof to catch the cool air and the stars. He woke to the bustle of departure, stood too fast, lost his footing, fell badly. He heard his own neck break. The crew sailed without noticing him gone. They thought he had hidden away to have his pick of the maids. In the Underworld he comes forward through the moaning mass with his neck crushed and his head drooping to the side. He looks at Odysseus and his throat closes. You left, he says. You sailed and no one even thought of me. Forgotten and unburied, I am caught between the living and the dead. By your wife, by the father who raised you, by your son, go back. Burn my body. Heap a mound on the shore. Put my oar on top so others will know I lived. Set me free. They do.