Ovid, or whoever it was, got it all wrong <br />And for that alone was justly packed off: <br />He has been greatly wronged, Theseus, poor lad, <br />Who, closing on thirty, was not longer awfully young- <br />Behind him lay labors and loves, galore, <br />Yet mightily his veins swelled with rests of youth, <br />And the way the light broke and the shadows fawned <br />On his arm bespoke rests of wild incaution still to come. <br />His intention was never to leave her forever- <br />Ariadne, the hypersensitive, the 'I want it all? ' girl, <br />Little ex-virgin-putta pout artist, loveable, <br />Perfectly, everything going her way; the clever <br />Rich, spoiled king's daughter, whom nothing, <br />Nothing! -satisfied for very long, <br />There on tiresome Naxos, pig-filled isle of ill-doing, <br />Void of denizons, much a good thing, too. <br />Ok, the string was her idea-pretty good, <br />But surprisingly benign, the minotaur <br />Those annual tributes you've heard of? Parsnips! <br />He wanted to ditch the tiresome place, himself! <br />His, too, a bum rap, poor grotesque. <br />No, the biggest chore was to slip the bloody thing, <br />The labyrinth, that is, the madman's brain-child, <br />Whose every turn led wearysomely on to turn <br />And the door, one thought, lay always just ahead. <br />String: a good idea, Then, but this was Now. <br />She tried to goad him-a man of his gifts-imagine! <br />To sorry dependency, appetite gone, imagine! <br />Him, who'd hauled oar alongside Hercules; <br />And, all else failing, resorted to mothering! <br />Pet-hinting his marvellous self-esteem <br />Would vanish without her, leaving him low, <br />Guilty, angry, useless, weak, alone, <br />But.....<br /><br />Morgan Michaels<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/theseus-l/
