PERSEUS
Cooper Esteban
Boar-like he passed
into the cave, the dew of the walls
settling on his coat.
—Look how it crawls
into his curls,
the orange light of the sisters’
fire; the surge
of the snake-pit, intestines
in their dike of muscles.
—Watch her welcome the creep
of that sword, the vein that beats
in the hairless angle
of his elbow, the sleeping
wound mother kisses good night.