Ariadne and Doctor Ramani

(from a painting by Evelyn de Morgan)

On the outside nestled in a ruby dress
   you might take Ariadne for a goddess.
A surge of titian locks capes a shoulder,
   the other glows like creamy chowder.
I met her recently at the Portrait Gallery
   took her out to tea In Covent Garden.
As she sipped the flowered porcelain,
   savoring cup cakes began to explained,
melted like icing into the mouth of time.

In the purple of the night he had shone.
   Solid as bronze, he whispered suggestions
and ignited her mind.
   She got completely lost in his maze.
But when his ship disappeared in the mist
   he messaged that she was a tidsoptimist.
She lay on the beach a piece of wreckage.
   Even forgot her maiden name until recently
on You Tube she discovered Doctor Ramani.

Realized that she held a a thread
   that could unravel why Theseus sailed away.
He was a narcissist who never says he’s sorry.
   It was not for her to pay by dangling on a shelf
in a national museum blaming herself.
   Ariadne is now reframing her portrayal
in the perspective of an academic
   She is doing a PhD on the politics of identity
At Goldsmiths university.