and wary as ever of wine’s dissolutions,
he went to his bed and watched moonlight
gleam on the thorax of the gold scorpion,
whose claws’ shadows clicked in his dreams.
Because it was gold, the king loved it,
but no guest at his wedding guessed the real reason
the Telchines bestowed this strange gift on them.
The scorpion attended the tedium
of the queen’s commencement of marital duties
and hadn’t moved in the many years since.