THE DAINTY MONSTERS
Michael
Ondaatje
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Prometheus, with Wings
They splayed him scientifically on the rock
so that a limping sun would blind him until noon,
crack his lips and eyelids, white his hair,
and harden blood on bitten lips and thighs.
The bird would come, peck at his puckered flesh,
lick his ribs and peel the calloused skin
until the dusk grew fat and brown
and the bird left frowning.
His crackled knuckles then released their bite
and hanging he watched sea drown half his skin
which stinging like peroxide dulled the sense
so he could grin again.
Zeus
sitting with a bunch of grapes and gods
spat out the pips
and puzzled watched this man,
who with a whitened eye and hectic lust
wooed a host of mermaids after dusk.
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