Helen and Pollux

By Roger Desy

— mother virgin father hero — orphans from the bowels
of souls lost to their age — stared upon stranger

evolved offspring — from the love of the act


— the discretion of glands — the calculated withdrawal

 

— capable at profession — investments — dressing — dinner —
theater — politics — cruises — crusades — tennis — and therapy


— appraisals — as a morning mist spangles the sabbath
in coins of sunlight — and both — made vows — to each other

— but winds sooner or later do get vicious — and few have known
the down of a swan — fewer have had divine twins


fewer a cabin at the inner fire

 

— over a winter — wintering over — brings on the beauty
of a full-feathering rime to the frigid panes

incubating the excitations looking out and looking in —

 

 

 

[I imagine Helen and Pollux (one of the Gemini twins) — twins themselves, the offspring of Zeus the Swan's violation of Leda — so rare a pair of outcasts, had only each other's love, wherein they throve through Winter.]