Franz Wright: DEPICTION OF CHILDHOOD

Franz Wright
DEPICTION OF CHILDHOOD
after Picasso


It is the little girl
guiding the minotaur
with her free hand--
that devourer

and all the terror he's accustomed to
effortlessly emanating,
his ability to paralyze
merely by becoming present,

entranced somehow, and transformed
into a bewildered
and who knows, grateful
gentleness...

and with the other hand
lifting her lamp.