The coming of my friend’s unfaithful wife
Alarms my mind to a quick thudding of foot
As if detachments double-timed on stone
Behind their smoky torches; bronze clangs
And wild orders echo from the square
Eastward to the gate and the pursuit.
Then muteness huddles with me in my chair:
I have seen bone-white plumes on the east wall,
Javelins jabbing in the dawn’s blood,
My neighbor’s pale wife fumbling at her blind.
Paris has fled; the palace throbs with fear;
And Menelaus ponders on his bed.
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