After Picasso (painting of this story)


It is the little girl
guiding the minotaur
with her free hand—
that devourer

and all the terror he’s accustomed to
effortlessly emanating,
his ability to paralyze
merely by becoming present,

entranced somehow, and transformed
into a bewildered
and who knows, grateful
gentleness…

and with the other hand
lifting her lamp.