Helen, Troyless

Helen, Troyless by Michael R. Burch "The face that launched a thousand ships..." Helen, bright accompaniment, accouterment of war as sure as all the polished swords of princes groomed to lie in mausoleums all eternity... The price of love is not so high as never to have loved once in the dark beyond foreseeing. Now, as dawn gleams pale upon small wind-fanned waves, amid white sails, ... now all that war entails becomes as small, as though receding. Paris in your arms was never yours, nor were you his at all. And should gods call in numberless strange voices, should you hear, still what would be the difference? Men must die to be remembered. Fame, the shrillest cry, leaves all the world dismembered. Hold him, lie, tell many pleasant tales of lips and thighs; enthrall him with your sweetness, till the pall and ash lie cold upon him. Is this all? You saw fear in his eyes, and now they dim with fear's remembrance. Love, the fiercest cry, becomes gasped sighs in his once-gallant hymn of dreamed "salvation." Still, you do not care because you have this moment, and no man can touch you as he can... and when he's gone there will be other men to look upon your beauty, and have done. Smile?woebegone, pale, haggard. Will the tales paint this?your final portrait? Can the stars find any strange alignments, Zodiacs, to spell, or unspell, what held beauty lacks? Published by The Raintown Review, Triplopia, The Electic Muse, The Chained Muse, The Pennsylvania Review, and in a YouTube recital by David B. Gosselin Keywords/Tags: Helen, Troy, Paris, myth, mythology, beauty, love, war, gods, fate, destiny, portrait, fame, famous, stars, Zodiac, Zodiacs, star-crossed, spell, charm, potion, enchantment, loss, Greece, Greek, mythology, legend, Homer, Odyssey, accompaniment, accouterment, eternal, eternity, immortal, immortality, women, soulmate