Second Saturday’s Sonnet

Theseus

By Eric Meub


 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The king gave me protection, and the god
the body of an ad for underwear,
but on the docks of Troezen in a fraud
of both I tempted every sailor there.

A gray-haired captain who had bowed before
my father’s throne now cruised me through the fog
about the ships. I watched him jump to shore,
all muscles, then I led him like a dog.

Winter slapped the lines against the mast
he pinned me to. He slipped a tiny head
into my hand—a horse head sea charm cast
in bronze—to save me from myself, he said.

I murdered all my way to Athens, grim
as Neptune, just to shake the smell of him.

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Copyright © 2014 by Eric Meub
Eric Meub, architect, lives and practices in Pasadena. He is the adopted brother of the artist, Susan C. Price. They respect, in their different ways, the line.