I gave you the key and the thread for the labyrinth
revealed to you the path to the monster’s secret chamber
showed you the slaying sword and the way to my heart
followed you to the unknown island.
Under warm rain I lay onto the flowers, fearful and ready
You loved me sweetly and walked away as I dreamed,
your love for the slaying larger than the call of my body,
asleep and sad, dressed in rain and crushed petals.
Argonaut, you left me to die of hunger and grief,
alone in the unknown island, as night fell wet and warm
on these limbs that met love and desertion under that same sky.
You had no joy of me.
Now it’s the devil I love,
he found me sobbing under the stars by the sea,
wailing your name, O slayer of monsters.
He covered me with his mantle and dried my drenched hair
drenched me with wine and played on his flute
the music of forgetfulness
then covered my body with his own
into the night.
In our insomniac hours of wine and wild laughter
you Argonaut are but a shadow.
I wear my crown high in the sky,
it shines over the cities you built
the innocent you destroyed,
the abducted women who suffered at your hands
the horned bones of the monster you have slain
out of conceit only.
It’s the devil I love now Argonaut
you shall never any more
walk into the shades of the underworld
and return untouched
Your night is forever tainted
by the light of my Corona Borealis.
In our insane hours of wine and wild laughter, I remember
You had no joy of me.
Words and photography ©Malu Baumgarten - all rights reserved