The  Flaying of Marsyas
                             
The rotting hide flutters at its untidy edges
solidly nailed upon the thick tree bole.
Nailheads weep rust to mingle with the blood
that  stains the earth below dark brown.

No chords from a triumphant lyre now resonate
and the breath of the defeated flute is stilled.
The nymphs have departed weeping, and sly Apollo,
satisfied with his cheating victory,  has left the field.

As the satyr bled from the tracery of the flensing knives,
suspended from the tree as they sliced through his flesh
did his wild cries of  Why  do you  tear  me  from  myself  ?
send a jolt of remorse through judges and opponent ?

The modes of music have changed :
but Apollonian  and  Dionysian still conflict.
The matriarchs had for that time lost the battle
but did half man disjoint from sacrificed beast?

Olympus joined with hubristic curse and envy
in the attempt to replace a system of belief,
but  much of the earlier spirit still survives
In the river of tears created by his mourners.

Is  there a final judgment on god and satyr ?