She runs. Daphne is pushed by repulsion
like a magnet repelling another magnet.
Apollo chases. After being mocked
by Apollo for his lame archery skills
Eros shot Apollo with love’s arrow.
Arrows are sexual metaphors. Daphne
was the first he saw so Apollo pursues
her like war, like she is a battle to be won, territory
to be conquered. Daphne is a woman
for refusing a man. She prays
to the river, her father, to rescue her
and the river, her father, transforms
her, mid-step, her breasts seized
by bark, into laurel. The river
who saves her betrays her by binding
her wrists and pinning her ankles
down and Apollo is fast enough
to catch up to a rooted tree.
Daphne is a tree for refusing a man.
A tree is a sexual metaphor. Daphne now lives
as trees live in a field near the river
where Apollo watches her bloom, cutting
her branches, the sap bleeding
across his blade, and passing
her pieces along to his friends,
decorating their heads with his victory.
Brad Johnson has two chapbooks, Void Where Prohibited, and The Happiness Theory, available at puddinghouse.com. His third chapbook, Gasoline Rainbow, is available at finishinglinepress.com. Work of his has recently been accepted by The Jabberwock Review, The Madison Review, Natural Bridge, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, The South Carolina Review, The Southeast Review, Steam Ticket, Willow Springs, and others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
