how Theseus lugged the hybrid’s dripping head
as though it would reveal which hallway led
to his mother’s murderer; how crimson thread
remembered Ariadne’s path while she
gathered the green pebbles and randomly
flung them over the walls; how hunger first
aggravated the rebel’s rage till thirst
made him lick puddles of muddy rain
and desperation made Asterion’s brain
wind through his entrails; how he searched in vain
until, too weak to hold his sword, he slid
down the lean shadow of a mason’s grid
and sat through hunger’s last indignities;
why Athena told the staring bones to freeze
and imitate the stone behind them; why
the void called voice released this curious I?