Ariadne Sleeps

Ariadne Sleeps

(after John William Waterhouse)

 

The flush is in the sky and in her cheeks;

the man has done the ravishing and gone.

Pink arousal fades in opiate dreams;

the poppies nod. Dead roses wither on,

 

and the waking leopard narrows eyes, slit-

pupilled, stalks his female, sniffs the sex

of her even as she sleeps. A flicker of the lids:

he sidles, raises hackles, snarls – licks.

 

Her thighs are tensed. Dawn vibrates with purrs.

A slow tide ebbs. A wave seethes on a shoal.

He listens for the slapping of the oars,

fingers her algorithm, wound deftly round a spool.

 

Poem by Giles Watson, 2013. Inspired by John William Waterhouse’s painting, currently on display in the Ashmolean Museum, which shows Ariadne in an inebriate sleep, as Theseus sails away to kill the Minotaur. He has had a liaison with her, received her advice on how to negotiate the labyrinth, and promptly left her. In philosophy, “Ariadne’s thread” is the exhaustive application of logic to all available routes when solving a problem for which there are multiple possible solutions.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNhbiBUvZXM

 

Done