Ariadne

("Ariadne" previously appeared on Words & Whispers, Issue 13, September 1, 2023.)


Her skills of weaving
               golden thread
               through the deepest deceit,
To feel each fiber
               in the string. 
“My princess, my sister of Crete.”
     Asterion,
               named after the first king,
               locked in a labyrinth
               beneath the Palace of Knossos,
               he releases a long breath, 
               “This is light. This is darkness.
               I grieved the best of us.”
A sacrifice to make her world, 
               heroes to entreat, 
               only for them to leave, 
               each a badge of abandonment, 
worn like scars, seven stars, 
               hang a constellation, 
               a crown, in the sky,
while the nymph 
               ​sways in the night.