the making of the beast:

In the darkness he finds himself

through no design

rather because of difference

and isn't that the way of the world

what is not the same

must be destroyed, hidden or shamed;

so Asterion through no misdeed

only the luck of that other coin's side

finds himself the centre of the maze,

watches in horror and his horns grow,

his reputation too, and the 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 words spreads then,

like ships leaving the port,

break the waves with sails full

to carry the word 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.