Theseus to Ariadne (Flynt Firebrand)

With me now, eyes from eyes to the
crooked shape before us:
winding slowly, embraced
delicately by spun strands
as though through forever;
the horned head's blood burning stone.
Will you leave for change and the smooth sea?
All will collapse in the light's cone. How could it not?
This thread wound thinner by
past time and misremembered adventure,
which of us could know why the dead speak?
Our empires settle and slant into scant relevance,
So, be false for me a while,
lead me somehow deeper into this labyrinth,
though I already stand at the center.
Lie to me on the matter of time,
and for this moment, I will marry the thought of you,
here in the conquered darkness which is ours.


Ariadne to Theseus (LK Barrett)

My mother wove a labyrinth in her glory where
my brother's feet now drum the cavern floor
and you leave, you leave under black sails
belled in the wind offshore, a sunset
sunk upon these black curls
you kissed and swore to ever love—
unbound in grieving, snarled as
spent twine unwound, crowned,
a horned head's blood now burning stone.
Honey your lips whispered below my ear,
promised two lands ruled as one;
one of us knew the truth the heart speaks
and it was not me. My bare feet on stone
touch the seething darkness
where this kingdom breaks,
shedding tears for all I could not be. At its core,
the only lie spoken was my own.
Yours, I was yours, married in mind,
twinned in guilt, a balanced blade of inquiry
for who was the hero and what monster pled;
all we might have had left behind,
all for the sake of a fool girl’s thread.

12/01/2021

Author's Note: Playing with the palimpsest of all the Ariadne stories laid on each other...and playing with Flynt (Beloved) as usual, rocks.

Posted on 12/01/2021
Copyright © 2024 LK Barrett