Andromeda Variations

As Andromeda, I practiced
                                                         lapidary,
cut my bare foot on the nautilus shell
                            to keep the sea monster sated
                                          with my daily gift of blood.
I was a docile daughter. Mother photographed me
              endlessly on the same scalloped edge
                                          where I’d been conceived.
                                                           There was danger in her
declaration of my beauty, which she claimed surpassed
              the winsomeness of underwater nymphs.
                                                                         She was the rock
I was chained to, my arms bound behind me.
                                                         I came to feel
              at home with the monster’s perpetual breath on my toes,