by Katie Bee
If the minotaur knew how to knit,
Theseus would still be in the Labyrinth
and Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth,
would still be anointed in honeysuckle,
not cast adrift by the hero she saved.
Not wed to the god of cups and hedonism.
It’s not difficult to see who the monsters are in myth–
not Leda, or Persephone, or Arachne, who worked
so well with string she hung herself like the moon.
Though victors have written in delight of Perseus–
whose mother was entombed alive to keep an oracle’s
prophecy from coming to fruition–
And yet still Zeus desired.
And still her womb was filled.
And still Perseus existed to slay monsters.
The gods helped him kill Medusa, whose only crime
was not wanting the wet fruit of unasked eyes upon her.
Ripe peaches, split open, like her neck.