Page 30 of Styx

of my breath this fast,

my body would not weaken.

My fingers clenched

into fists as I stared at the sea,

thinking of how my sisters laughed at me

while I fought for their honour and mine.

Foolish girls cheering on

their own degradation, they did not see

how our brothers would get godhood

and untold power, and we were left with

nothing, but the hope

of good marriages while

we simply preserved what our brothers,

our parents, our aunts, uncles, and grandparents made.

Darkness Fell

My great-aunt Nyx raised her velvet cloak

and the sky was painted rich blue till it turned black.

The stars blinked at me and I thought of her:

Chaos, mother to us all, up there somewhere

still making the never-ending darkness beyond

vaster and vaster to accommodate her new creations.

Is this what she intended for her great-granddaughters?

That while there could be thousands of Gods,

thousands of Goddesses could not exist?

I wish I could speak to her. I closed my eyes.

And that was when I felt it.

A Strange Quiet Breeze

It couldn’t have risen

from the azure calm of the ocean

and it could not have come