Chase of the Beasts By Garry Morse

Crocus crocodile Queen bathing in the Nile

washing away purple dreams

flickers eyes assaulting her own maiden pyre

burning beneath armoured purity

on altars defiled

apples sucked whole

from the forbidden tree

in roaring jaws brought

to one waiting mane

from ice Atlanta

slender sailing scarlet deer

tearing the hind

down darkened corridors

from Lycaon wolves

waiting

in worlds of Hellenic heat

searing the bitch

smearing submission

around midnight

neighbourhoods

as plucky little hens

are sport for bigger birds

beneath beating wings

darkling dreams

plucking

more subtle are swans

gliding toward the dance

sliding along the waterside

furling wings in combative rhythm

with Leda's cries

fluttering airborne

as flies away Hippodamia

on the backs of uncontrolled centaurs

lapping liquor troughs

wildly trotting into the forest

where lives a cuckoo

crawling quietly over Juno

with beautiful Aquila colours

suddenly rutting forth

an unfed creature of Crete

brother of grim Hades

stroking a sieve

reaping thorn to peach pomegranite

Proserpine

stealing the spoils

bartered Briseus

felt the heat of war

wedged between her pride one night

yet never told tales

of a King

all this

yet shies away my frail iris

afraid of blooming open beneath a burning Sun

hovers a heliotrope underneath soft starry moonlight

of genteel love.

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