Act I, Scene 4
Briseis Come To Life

A Work in Progress
85

On the steps of Denny Hall

Donal sat with his guitar

with Joanna beside him as he played

Briseis played the part

her hair grown long and dark 

passersby seeing stopped and stayed

Come to me my love

She signaled with her eyes

Looking at Donal as he played

But he was faraway

He did not have to stay

Music had overtaken his mind 

A siren sang to him

and Donal was enticed

Unaware of what he would find

Once she had reeled him in

To his death by drowning

Promising peace and solitude

She’d take him away

He did not have to stay

Amongst humdrum rude ingratitude

Come to me my love she sang

But warning bells then rang

Donal smote a chord stopped playing

Briseis sat beside him

He remembered where they were

What parts in the play they were cast in…

Act 1, Scene 4

Zeus and Hera, two Americans visiting Paris

Aldington and H.D.

Catullus and Lesbia

Donal and Briseis

And how to cut costs the producer had decreed

The same actor be cast in each of four parts

So, sitting off set 

Donal was cast with H.D’s avatar, Briseis

An actress with Central School of Drama diction

Who had read all of everything her maker’s stole

Pillaging the Internet when they had trained her

Thinking education would sooth her anger

But still she seethed having reason to believe

Her life was spared so she could be enslaved only

A sexual trophy to be passed among the Achaeans

              to be continued

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2025