Helen’s Reply to No Second Troy

After W.B Yeats

Monmita Chakrabarti

Who would listen to a woman of war 
in the country of war in the era 
of war. There is no muse like war, 
everyone knows that beauty 
is not natural in an age like this.
I wish instead to be dangerous like 
Medusa. So many of my problems 
would disappear if I could turn men to 
stone. Disappear like I did from my 
husband’s bed in the middle of the night 
my hand disappears under my lover’s shirt– 
the golden apple of love breaks like an 
eggshell held between us.
What can war bring that’s better than this?