Helen of Troy

Helen,
Hatched from the ugly blue veins of the egg
Her mother, Leda, bore:
Leda, once beautiful,
Now weighted down
With the heavy living stones
Of her children. In what shallow lights
Is beauty seen! Her skin lost its radiant pallor.
The sun – red color of her hair leaked from the roots,
Replaced by a dun thinness.
Her belly, swollen taut,
No longer tempted Zeus; but merely sent
His fickle eye wandering onward. And so one day he flew from her,
With no lingering pity,
sunlight flashing from his pinions in Apollo’s splendid rays;
and all the hen – birds, for it was in the springtime,
left their strutting mates
and followed him in dark flocks
Until rain battered them back to earth. Such was the power of Zeus.