Page 4 of Styx

needs to be loved by all.

And our mother is still grieving.

She will love her too in time.’

Oceanus’s sea-green eyes stormed

and his long, sea-foam-white beard

trembled with anger as he spoke.

‘A child is no place to put misspent grief.’

My uncle studied the waves

of the ocean my father had so lovingly crafted

with his own two hands. ‘Gaia is a law

unto herself. You cannot change her.’

My father looked down at me

and kissed my forehead.

‘Perhaps not. But I can protect

my children from her influence.’

Perhaps my father had meant these words then.

Perhaps he did not know himself to be

the God that I have come to know him to be.

I would like to think he wanted to protect me.

I would like to think that he did not know

that some promises are an undoing

in and of themselves.

That they are not meant for even Gods to keep.

Back Then

Oceanus’s palace was still new,

a beating sapphire jewel

in the heart of Gaia’s earth.

His great river’s waters,

which eventually became

the seven seas and five oceans,