Her Husband
– after Leda, sculpture, Fernando Botero
When what had happened to his wife was done,
when he glimpsed her thawed face, its features softened
a touch self-satisfied, no matter how Tyndareus labored
after that, he couldn't take the thing for rape.
Each time the palace gossip turned to violation
he had to make himself remember, whatever happened later,
he was her first. She loved his Spartan ways.
She loved him best. He was obliged by this to blame
her half-smile on the will of Gods instead of calling
for a whip when his heart twisted in his chest.
But then the towers flamed in Helen's eyes
and then they dragged the corpse around the wall,
undid the city with a gift, the war exhausted him at last
and he confessed. That daughter, he said, wasn't one of his
– wendy taylor carlisle
"Her Husband" also appears in Wendy Taylor Carlisle's chapbook, After Happily Ever After.