Fractured below one knee he lies,
marooned in immobility, head tilted lower
than the body, Dionysos of the quarry,
face upturned to sun and moon and stormy skies.
Perhaps the stone-cutters and slaves
traded talk of Ariadne, haunting the temple
on the shore, mired in a spiral of betrayal,
scanning the arid seas for the Athenian's black sail.
Perhaps strange tales of minotaurs
made men less mindful of their task;
the mason cursed, the stone youth fell
from scaffold not made fast.
Sometimes torchlit maenads throng
the rock-hewn chamber where he rests,
to warm him with fermented breath,
anoint his lips with wine, new-pressed.
Kouros (Greek): archaic sculptural figure of a young man