Thursday 23 November 2017

The Minotaur dreams:

The Minotaur saw his many-mirrored reflection
in the sweat-beads gathered on the foreheads
of girls who fed him; cried out to his Father  
not knowing if it was to the King Minos
or the god-bull his pleas flew towards.

Each morning the guards reported to Minos
his nightly pleas and the witnessed torment
as they girls drew close and fed him.
They noted his horns bent towards the girls
as if their tips hungered for the touch of flesh.

Each girl attained the moment when she could resist
no longer; liquefied fear, like lava, carried her
onto his horns; the still breathing, bloody body
then dragged to the King’s bed, mute and vacant,
ruined for a second time, sent home in a casket.

The monster was blamed for each maiden’s death,
so the Minotaur’s legend grew, the monster oblivious
of his crimes, unaware his name filled the ears of children;
he remained deep underground, dreamed of light, of air
and the feel of a grass stem chewed between his lips.

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