There was no mercy in his arms, and though
I'd not been cradled as a babe, I knew
The strength of man wavers only in the face
Of the most fearsome, or the true demure
For which their legs shake and, stumbling they run,
Unmanned, benign or scared, into fate's hands.
This offspring of Poseidon's one night stand
Did no such thing - his fingers 'round my throat
Tightened with greatest ease, muffling my roar.
Perhaps, I thought, I'd finally grown weak;
A diet of the hopelessness of man
Clogging my veins with their mortality.
With my last moments of conscious struggle
I thought about the girl awaiting him:
The man would leave her - this I knew for sure.
I wondered what he'd said to draw her in.
My joints gave way and I began to fall -
I pitched headfirst into the great abyss
The walls and ceiling of my winding cage
Closed around me and showed a speck of light -
A color in the darkness of my tomb,
My eyes had caught a tiny thread of white.
And this the man took up, and walked away;
His back to me the last thing I would know
I had the strength left in one arm to kill,
But knew he'd meet his fate eventually.
My arm dropped and I fell to final sleep,
And met my killer's father in the earth.