Poem for 6/28/22 - Depiction of Childhood (after Picasso) by Franz Wright

 

MINOTAUROMACHIE (1935)

Blind Minotaur Guided by a Girl in the Night, 1934

Pablo Picasso, Spanish, 1881–1973

Aquatint, engraving, drypoint, and scraperFranz Wright (1953-2015)
DEPICTION OF CHILDHOOD
after Picasso


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.