Ariadne's Betrayal

I met him at a party
He was looking for some trouble
I could see he was scanning the crowd
While I privately admired his meaty shoulders

I circled to him, daring him to notice me
His lips stretched tight across perfect crooked teeth
Ted was his name, he said, grasping me firmly
On my arm so that I felt his fingers
Pressing into my skin

"Do you know," he asked, and his breath stirred my hair,
"Do you know a guy named Mike?"
"Mike!" I said, "Mike, my brother?"
(Mike was a bull-faced man, a scrapper, and yet...)

"Your brother!" That's when he looked my face over
He liked what he saw, his eyes burned brightly
"Yes, Mike is my brother, and I am Alliya,
But why would you care about that?"
"Alliya," he said, "Alliya, take me to Mike."

In an instant I weighed the decision
Heavy for Mike, my brother, often angry, but my brother.
But heavier still for this strong stranger
He might be my one shot, my one ticket out

I chose Ted, I told him where to go
Knowing my brother would go somewhere else
Ted strode in the house, not knocking, not caring,while
I nervously paced the concrete porch
Then Ted withdrew a revolver so solid that it
Killed Michael there on my mom's flowered couch

We leapt for the car, knowing the protection of distance
The Holiday Inn was seventy-five miles away
My heart had no feeling, it must have stopped beating
With the shot that stopped Mike's breath
When I finally slept I dreamed that Mike was still living
And the arms that held me were those of my father
When I woke I was alone

Abandoned, I wept, trying to drain it all
My anger, my fear, my shame, and my regret
I turned in the keys, but I stayed in the lobby
Nothing to move me, I slumped in the chair
My fingers tracing the flowers printed on the armrest

I sold out my brother to a rotten apple,
A car with no transmission, not a star, but a meteorite.
I should try to go back to my father
But why would he take me after what I had done?
I studied my wrists, pale and trembling
I could see the veins, dark with blood
The blood of my life I might drain if I dared
To end my existence, to bring on the finish

Then quietly, softly, a hand touched my shoulder
My wrists dropped, suddenly, glad to get away.
The one who was there offered me a new home
And nothing could prevent me from loving him more
More than father, mother, brother, lover
Because he gave me a second life that grew up over the first