Instead, we find her Helen living as a restless housewife and mother in Sparta, Tennessee, circa 1993. Her emotionally detached husband may not be a king, but she does refer to him as The Big Cheese.

Helen married King Menelaus of Sparta, then ran off with Paris from Troy, precipitating the 10-year Trojan War as a Greek alliance fought to get Helen back. In her first book of poems ...