“a minotaur encounters banshees at a summer concert” by Keira Perkins

in the vibrating dark night we cast our circle as the beast approaches, pulsating with the violence of wild things his arm slips around my waist and i spin and slip free, as my sister’s hand finds mine, dancing and dipping, i flow like water and he cannot hold me as i hold my other sister, tightly, fingers interlacing, my face lost in her tangled mane we are our own trinity, all of us are maiden, mother and crone, whirling and shrieking and laughing

enraged the bull-man pulls at our hips, pushing against us, goring, sharp and hard, but we are quick we are lightning, the summer storm, crackling and purple, our skin wet and thrumming, hearts pounding in time with rhythm that shakes our chests, we sisters dance and stomp and scream him loose, his hooves thundering and his voice bellowing, believing his ferocity will rip us apart but our banshee howls are louder, a klaxon, a siren, a warning

he does not heed us

          and does not know

                    or care

                              think

                                        that the howls of our hearts are curses on our lips

                                                                      We Warned Him.

                                                                      We Did.

we are violent wild things too, untamed, and faster, and faster, we spin, whirling, a torrent calling down our power our circle rippling like a pond, overlapping and tangled like vines, a labyrinth that pushes the bull, that beast, stumbling through fog caught by roots and branches, wrapping through his violent horns tearing at his tangled hair, the earth takes him and we are free to dance and stamp and scream and howl our magic in the vibrating dark night