Troy in New Orleans, Manhattan, or London
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So I found “Helen” sitting in a streetcar; the Dionysian revels of her court were transferred to a Metropolitan roof garden with a jazz orchestra;and the katharsis of the fall of Troy I saw approximated in the recent World War. ~ Hart Crane, “General Aims and Theories”
See Helen swaying in a streetcar, or
Perhaps far better, Paris, or the arm,
Or thigh swells of Achilles. That is for
A poet like Hart Crane who sees no harm
In lusting after harder, mythic males
On buses. Modern poets must retrace
The ancient Greek tale of a thousand sails
With what we see in a watering place
On Bourbon Street or in the Bronx. The war
Goes on just south of Troy in Palestine
Millennia later so why not more
Voluptuousness. Find it in a shrine
Made up of carriages of Tube trains on
The Central Line or in a gay bar’s brawn.
