nuanced

Patrocles decomposes on the bed
while Hector sprawls, unspoiling on the floor.
Old Priam pleads both sides should tend their dead;
there's time enough next week for waging war.
Two enemies can bond in mingled grief.
The hero's human here, far from the fight.
His whole career--'though glorious--is brief
he plays the gracious host for this one night.
The poet's sympathy's half with the Greeks
but Troy's defenders tug his heartstrings, too.
The lifeblood that from either body leaks
bears no simplistic label "red" or "blue".
The text that educated Greece's youth
bows less to jingoism than to Truth.