Beast That Never Was reminds me of Rilke's Unicorn Sonnet.

(I think the Unicorn was actually a bearded billy goat whose horns had fused into one..it was real)




O dieses ist das Tier das es nicht gibt

This is the animal that doesn’t exist.
But they didn’t know it and dared nonetheless
to love its transformations, its bearing, its gait
so much that in the tranquil gaze of light, it lived.

Really it never was. Out of their love they made it,
this pure creature. They always saved a space.
And in that place, empty and set aside,
it lightly raised its head and scarcely

needed to be. They fed it no corn,
only the possibility that it might exist –
which gave the beast such strength, it bore

a horn upon his forehead. Just one horn.
It came to a virgin, all white,
and was in the silver mirror and in her.