Callisto and Arcas

Callisto and Arcas

The hunt, the chase, the race to remain chaste,
Zeus overtakes her, breaks her, impregnates her,
Alienates her from fair Artemis,
Makes of her a bear, cast up in thin air,
Safe from the huntress and the mother goddess,
But not from her son Arcas, his arrow ready,
His aim steady, with the killing, heady,
With eagerness blind to the bear, his own kind.
Zeus stays the hand of his son, his heart won
By the woman, the bear, living on air,
Makes stars of his boy, restores mother joy:
Captives of the sky, ursine mother, son.
Stars tell the story of love, done, undone, done

Author: Sandy Lee Carlson

Photo: Yusuf Dündar on Unsplash