ESSENCE OF HOPE (Glowing Embers)

The third effort to bring Troy and her personages to life.  Today's protagonist:  Paris, Hector's brother, Helen's lover, Troy's last prince!

ESSENCE OF HOPE

(Glowing Embers)



1.

And, 'tho now the deed was done, he could not think nor feel.
Nor could he wrap his thoughts around a mighty Hero laid to ground;
an arrow through his heel!
"No true Prince of Troy," he felt, "'tho Priam claims me so.
I only sought to grasp the prize I spied in Aphrodite's eyes-
and brought my city woe!

Helen!  Will you love me still when Troy shall die in flame?
Will your sweet breasts thrill to my hand yet, when our love has scorched my land
and buried me in shame?
Will you meet my burning gaze with eyes which burn as well?
Will I be welcome in your bed when all about us Troy lies dead,
an empty, dust-filled well?"

2.

While these thoughts raged through his mind, yet others had their sway.
Hector was his brother, dear, from whom he'd learned to harness fear
and calmly face each day.
Hector:  Soldier, brother, hero, father, husband.  All!
Yet all did in one strangled breath abandon us upon his death
beneath the city's wall!

Achilles sought not honor when he stood before the gate!
He came forth not to balance score for Patroclus, his friend of yore,
but filled with seething hate!
Forfeiting his honor, hewing glory into shame,
he bound and dragged you, like a cur, an insult to the man you were
then spit upon your name!

One should never spit to windward, sailing men will say.
For old Poseidon never smiles at fools, nor at their foolish wiles,
and ALWAYS has his pay!
To stand athwart a Deity?  What man has such might?
Apollo is my patron though:  He gifts an arrow and a bow
and whispers, "Trust the Flight!"

3.

Thus Divinely armed and strengthened, Paris turns about,
and quickly darting from the walls while skirting past the crowded halls
he quietly slips out.
Taking not the time for thought, he's donned Apollo's Mask.
Abandoning himself to trust and lost within the battle's dust
gives over to his task!

Crouching 'neath a broken cart great carnage stabs his eye.
The God Gifts, flashing golden glow, of their own will nock shaft to bow-
he feels the arrow fly...
Ice which only failure knows assailed his heart anew,
then shattered from such mortal scream as ne'er he'd felt in truth or dream;
the arrow's flight was TRUE!

4.

And 'tho now the deed was done, he could not think nor feel.
He could not wrap his thoughts around a mighty Hero laid to ground;
an arrow through his heel!
Risen from the ashes, glowing embers burn once more.
Yet 'tho Apollo's gifts are gone, the essences of hope live on
to end this Grecian War!