Gone Ladies

For Pauline Boty

Where in the world is Helen gone,
Whose loveliness demolished Troy?
Where is Salome?
Where the wan licentious cream of Avalon?
Who sees my lady Fontenoy
And where is Joan, so soldier tall?
And she who bore God's only boy?
Where is the snow we watched last Fall?

Is Thaïs still? Is Nell? And can
Stem Héloïse aurene,
Whose so-by-love-enchanted man
Sooner would risk castration than
Abandon her, be seen?
Who does Scheherazade enthral?
And who, within her arms and small,
Shares Sappho's evergreen?

Through what eventless territory
Are ladies Day and Joplin swept?
What news of Marilyn who crept
Into an endless reverie?
You saw Lucrece? And Jane? And she,
Salvation's ancient blame-it-all,
Delicious Eve? Then answer me:
Where is the snow we watched last Fall?

Girl, never seek to know from me
Who was the fairest of them all.
What wouldst thou say if I asked thee:
Where is the snow we watched last Fall?