first edit

The making of the beast #1:

In the darkness he discovers not

through design rather because of

difference what is not the same must

be hidden, destroyed, or shamed;

Through no misdeed only the luck of

the coin's other side he finds himself

the centre of the maze, watches in horror as

his horns grow, his reputation too, and

the shed blood also, because he was other than

as all should be and being the son of

a king or god saves him not

from the curse of deviation.

How the word spreads then, like ships

leaving the port, sails full to carry the whispers to

all the distant ports, to the bars and homes and even,

so it seems, into the bedrooms, to set a pulse within

the hearts and thighs of  those who crave

the very things they are told to despise.