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Minotaur in Therapy by Emma Goldman-Sherman

"The worst labyrinth is not
that intricate form that can entrap us forever,
but a single and precise straight line."

—Jorge Luis Borges

I'm lucky

my father pays

& prays

I will not say

what he does

in exchange

for the magic

diminishment

I'm mythic

a danger

why I'm not

allowed to speak

hooves for feet

I wander

darkness for days

as long as what comes

out of me is only

a kind of braying

the therapist traps

a prayer for fools

as a beard scratches

a recording

to blanket a man

spun backwards

in classical musings

cryptic notes while

I honk at geese

in formation

with ancient tongues

to screech & barf

through these cracks

I'm too young

like an owl

a roar & howl pattern

to feel so old

I'm fouled

every morning

I'm twisted

waking as he goes

unable to trace

his footsteps that know

or he wouldn't be

in the labyrinth

so unkind

if I could follow him

never again be left behind

to forgive him

Bio

Emma Goldman-Sherman's plays have been produced on 4 continents and include Abraham's Daughters, available as a podcast here. Their poetry is published or forthcoming in Toyon, Gigantic Sequins, The Mersey Review, Ink in Thirds, Anti-Heroin Chic, and others. Their microfiction will be anthologized in Best Microfiction 2025. Emma works as a neuro-affirming coach and teaches for the Dramatists Guild Institute. They support writers here and write about wholeness and creativity here.

Author's note

Monstrosities are often shunned, what societies don't want to face. The Minotaur was locked into a labyrinth underground. Trauma can lock us into ourselves and make it hard to find our way. My father put me in therapy at the age of 8 which became its own labyrinth. Poetry can be a path toward freedom. We can face what is monstrous inside of us and write ourselves whole.

This poem previously appeared in Possible Paths for the Minotaur (Ghost City Press: 2025).