Text of "Minotaur"

MINOTAUR 

A young one who'd have thought

dreaming in the late light

before a portico

pinker than nougat

His father’s terrible head

laid aside uncovers

an ink sketch by Cocteau

The earlobe’s cunning nugget

Colors of Crete     Sun washing

black locks blood-red.

Pale ankle firm as cactus

escaping from his cloak

dense with soft black spines

To see not quite a threat

to touch not quite a joke

A vital rivulet

pulsing along his throat

he looks up     Shafts of blue

fatally attract us

Drawn two by two

after him through the maze

we’ve come as tribute     Ten

old women ten old men

This youngster is expected

to feed on what we are

or were     Mind’s meat heart’s blood

all that we’ve seen and known

treasured up rejected

will now become his body

Devour my life each prays

Amazement     Golden beeline

for greenest dark     Strong fusion

of grape and cardamom

As for the “sacrifice”

one lightning fleet confusion

sparklers of ice

Farewell’s euphoric hail

It must have been benign

If we lived through it     Did we

Depends who tells the tale

The Yale Review (Spring 1999), 15-16;
Collected Poems (New York: Knopf, 2002), 854-55.