The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Mon 5/4/2009)

[RetroLounge]

The Minotaur Speaks

The queen lay in the hollow
of a wooden cow so my father
would mount her, his white hide
glistening like a raw moon.
To love is to look up, up, up.
She named me Asterius,
the starry one. When the king
heard my birth cry, he raised
black curtains to every window
in Crete. He began to build.
My father was led away by a rope
around his neck. My mother
gave me the apple of her breast,
and I bit it off. To love is to feed
and feed again. My room
has thirty-two walls, no doors,
no chair, no light, no mirror.
I touch a face that is leather
and horns and mine, mine, mine.
They say this man has flaxen hair,
a mouth so fine the gods
beg him to speak. They say
my death will make him
a hero. Everyone loves a hero,
but a hero only loves you
until he reaches the next island.
This is my only island. To love
is to unwind the long thread
of your heart and, at the end, tie
a noose. Love, come and get me.

Sandra Beasley

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Sandra Beasley won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize for her book Theories of Falling (New Issues, 2008), selected by Marie Howe. Her poems have been featured in Verse Daily and Best New Poets (Samovar, 2005) and in journals such as SLATE, The Believer, 32 Poems, and Barrow Street. Awards for her work include the 2006 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize from Passages North and fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Millay Colony. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she serves on the editorial staff of The American Scholar.

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:hi:

RL

OnEdit - I've screwed up the thread title day and the date repeatedly lately. We had Wednesday 3 days in a row last week...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. uhm

Sunday? Did I miss one? :donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

2. Fixed

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. ok

:)

[blueraven95]

4. morning!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. ...

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

5. Pete--that's brilliant. (I love anyone Marie Howe loves.) It's hard to re-envision ancient myths

without being cliche or derivative, but this one blows me away.

[RetroLounge]

10. Who is Pete?

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear Retro...

Wow, amazing!

How to make an old story new and fresh...she has done it.

I love it; thank you!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

11. ...

:hi:

RL

[miss_american_pie]

7. ...

:kick:

[RetroLounge]

8. ...

:hi:

:hug:

RL