Asterion's birth:

Instead of the two mothers on their knees,

the cold marble floor indifferent to their grief,

as their hands clasp the babe

and each claim the maternal right,

we have a single mother who stands aghast,

her lips, a wide circle of a shock,

her eyes wide also an attempt to dispel,

both hands forward hands open

as if she can manage to push away the horror,

behind her, the father who is not —

it is obvious from the facial features,

the hooves for feet

and in the room the bellowing;

a bull’s roar claiming god’s ownership.

And though it is a god

that has cuckolded the monarch

imagine the trembling

of mother and king (for different reasons)

their minds seared by the image

of the bawling babe.

Both condemn

the culpable affairs of the god

determined to maintain their own feeble control

over events that have spiralled away

as if both mother and king

found themselves within

a labyrinth of the bull-god’s design.

And surrounding this scene

of king and queen and new born beast,

the faces of humanity, a sea

that at any moment might rise up

and depose the king who cannot control

or usurp the child who cannot rule —

not with those feet,

those bull lips

that skull ready for the horns.

Is it a surprise to anyone, then,

the cave to be a prison,

the beast to become a powerful symbol

and all the tributes paid in full

in the flesh and blood of normal children

who have done no wrong except be born

without the influence of a god.