POEM
Actaeon
Actaeon, changed to stag, was ripped
by jaws of ignorant hounds
for having spied the unmentionable
while wandering out of bounds.
And yet, he sinned in innocence
not knowing she was near:
her land had not been posted,
its boundaries were unclear.
It takes a deity, you’ll say,
to be so cruel, so unfair!
Too true—but that’s the way it works.
At least, he’d seen that Body, bare.
“Actaeon” from The One Abiding by Frederick Morgan. Permission granted by Robert McDowell/Story Line Press.
Source: The One Abiding (Story Line Press, 2003)
