Page 94 of Styx

Perhaps this was why the prophecy

wormed its way into my mind.

The Dream

I saw myself walking along

my father’s dark underground river.

It pulsed and stormed, ink black,

as though threatening me.

But I stood upon its banks

glaring back at it unafraid.

And then, from the abyss,

a large divine face emerged,

the water’s violent waves

helping it rise to the surface.

It was the face of a God I did not know.

Bearded, handsome, but with a glint

of cruelty in his eyes. Soon,

the rest of him emerged

until everything around him

was dwarfed. The river,

the riverbanks, myself.

His hand pushed upward

and I realized he was pushing

at the floor of Oceanus’s palace.

As his hand pushed, the palace

walls began to fall,

and fall,

and fall…

Until finally I awoke,

feeling like his hand

was wrapped around