11.

• Orion on the horizon,
• descending . . .
• There is a relation:
• the indiscriminate beast-kill
• & the rape,
• Orion doesn’t see it.
• There is a war within—
• Horus & Set battle . . .
• Orion doesn’t see it.
• The triangle of his heart grieves . . .
• He’s under siege;
• as he drinks the strange god’s cup,
• Dionysus pulls him apart
• to find his allegiance.
• He’s under the influence,
• feeling wise beyond his years,
• he does “what comes natural.”
• Uninitiated,
• the rape was initially unconscious.
• What followed, inevitable—
• for his compulsions are loosed;
• we know, for the climax
• is not other-world ecstasy
• but blindness
• The rape of Merope becomes
• the rape of queen bee, our Mother, the sea . . .