We will always have Paris… & Helen

Paris said, “Let’s do lunch.”
Helen answered, “Don’t toy with me,”
but it was too late. Paris misheard,
whisked her away to Troy,
& that wasn’t all Homer said.
Let’s face it: Helen’s launched
a thousand ships & a vast literature.
Ten years of war & the fall of Troy:
Paris, immortality & the vast
literature aside, better to have
settled for the girl next door.

~ Andrew Shattuck McBride

On a postcard for the International Art Festival at Peace Arch Park, June 2013.

This poem is for my friend and mentor Jim Milstead. Jim is a very funny man, and a very talented writer and poet.

I just mailed the postcard. This is my third poem for the 2013 Postcard Poetry Project.