Thursday, December 29, 2022

Helen Home

Again home, Helen

rubs her hands before the hearth,

Attic winds chill the air.

 

Menelaus, peace

in hand, rubs his belly’s scar,

still king, gray-whiskered.

 

The dead now, across

the sea, a roll call, told

and sung, old men’s tales.

 

Whither Patroclus,

Whither Hector and Paris,

Whither, too, Ajax?

 

Helen, braiding her

daughter Hermione’s hair—

whither Achilles?

 

Lyman 2022

 

 

 

 

 

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