Priam’s land ends here; its lion-toothed rocks rip the sea while the shore remains besieged by jellyfish, as red as Menelaus’s hair.

The great sea’s lapis glimmer is smothered by ships. The Atreidae have come with a dowry so great it overwhelms even the deep Aegean.

Seagull eggs shatter under my hammering heels, like the brittle bones of unburied countrymen. I gallop through the gates of home with horse’s froth bathing both feet. The news of Greeks, in those ships, crouches deep within my belly.

Black sails billowing,
they capture the wind
and leave me breathless.