Page 70 of Styx

loved my mother the first time I saw

the chambers he had built for her

above his great winding river.

When she told him the prophecy

of all the children she would bear,

he gathered the pearls of every oyster,

plucked sapphires from the seafloor,

and found the brightest marble from

as far as he could go into the earth’s core.

He returned and built her this part

of the palace, every room made

of rich marble, carefully carved

windows spilled light everywhere

inside, and the sapphires and pearls

reflected the glow of the sun

into her chambers. My father knew

that to be wedded to him was also

to be wedded to his spending his time

underground as this was where his river ran.

So he built my mother the opposite,

a place of sunshine and warmth

where she could birth their many children

in a peaceful place full of light and breeze.

But today as I ran into these chambers,

I saw only the storm gathered above.

Darkness shadowed the room,

the sapphires looked onyx,

and even the pearls a threatening grey.

My mother was lying in her bed

and to my surprise, Asteria’s mother, Phoebe,