Queen Pasiphaë is redeemed by the sword

when she hears her child’s echo in the cave—

not unlike her shrieks in the wooden beast

as she once lurched under the white bull’s shadow.

Now, justly induced by her daughter’s thread

and hand, her bastard son’s assassin weaves

in and out of the labyrinth, he weaves

more deftly than a needle with his sword,

piercing the darkness at each turn, the thread

leading his hands to the mouth of the cave–

soon Theseus will emerge, his shadow

reconfigured in the light, and the beast

now a story upon his lips, the beast

reduced to a tapestry that he weaves

from the edge of his unraveling shadow.

Yet still its blood is hot upon his sword

as he is running blindly through the cave,

his left palm scorched by Ariadne’s thread.

************************************

His left palm burns from Ariadne’s thread

as he is running blindly through the cave

to draw its blood, hot upon his sword,

and join the remnants of his own shadow.

Reduced to a tapestry he later weaves,

a story brimming on his lips, the beast

is reconfigured in his mind: the beast

and Theseus will converge, their shadows

reeling back and forth within the cave,

facing darkness at each turn, the thread

then deftly wending under hoof and sword

along the labyrinth’s edge. He weaves

through night, the bastard son’s assassin weaves

fatefully led by Ariadne’s thread,

he lunges under the minotaur’s shadow

as Pasiphaë lurched under Daedalus’ beast.

She hears her child’s echo in the cave:

Queen Pasiphaë is redeemed by the sword.