Callisto

The attraction is:
the locked door;
the desire is:
to disturb what is untouched.
Zeus approaches Callisto
inside the form of Artemis,
inhabiting the body
of a virgin, twice.
For her audacity
in being raped,
for her wilfulness
in falling pregnant,
Callisto is cast out
by Artemis, imprisoned in
the body of a bear
Hera will hound to the last.
After so many
false assumptions
Callisto is taken up
into the heavens —
whether in recompense,
or as punishment,
she cannot tell
by then.
Throughout, her self-shape
has been assaulted
by the fantasies, the judgements,
of powerful others.
In unchosen silence
she has endured
confusion, betrayal,
utter loneliness.
From a life serene,
companionable, unchallenged,
she has spun through
bodies, worlds, light years.
In this brightness —
all-seeing and seen by all —
she is the hidden
one-in-herself;
in a sky of images
she is the witness
that there are other
skies
whirling with
fragments of fire,
black stars,
light yet-to-be-born.