Challenging Poetry

Daphne's fate

a laurel’s trunk twists,
writhing away from the god’s touch
as Daphne once ran,
and I wonder—
did she cry out
as her prayers were answered
and her feet—once so fleet
that a god couldn’t catch her
were anchored,
bound to the earth?
did she feel the bark
filling her flesh to overflowing
until it burst
into ten thousand jagged pieces,
and her new skin oozed into place?
did she wonder
if it was worth it—becoming a tree
to preserve her virginity,
when the god claimed her anyway,
plucking her leafy tears
to crown his heroes head—
turning her virtue to his honor.

When I think of trees, the first thing I think of is the myths--of transformations or the trees that hold the world. But starting there, I started thinking of Daphne, and how being turned into a tree was probably not what she had in mind when she asked for help. Especially because the laurel became Apollo's tree, and he was the god she was trying to escape. So . . . I just went that way.