Sorrento

by Audrey Isabella

Young child gone down the coast,
walking along the beach.
The wind of winter hit her, harsh and bitter,
spiting she had not come in summer.
She sat down on the sand,
the water rushed up and down
dunes bringing shells and seaweed,
tokens of Amphitrite, to meet her.

The gods are with me today.
Was it here that Aphrodite was born? 
The foam in the swell, the shells,
this is how I imagined it.

She looked out and saw the truth
the madness of the raging seas,
and the Sky who sends wind and lightning
and screams her rage in thunder
to any unworthy man who dared tame the sea,
her beloved bride Ondine, mother
of beautiful naiad queens commanding water
and  all its beasts.

The gods are everything and nothing 
as I thought them to be.
They are my dreams and my nightmares, they are everything
I fear and want/to be.

Fantastical mermaids enslaving hearts
of men with song taught to them by grandmother, Cetacea.
Whale-woman leading her children,
and children of children through the depths
to achieve their dreams.

And so it was and so it shall be:
to live amongst your dreams
cast yourself into the sea, 
forsake your island life,
know the cost, 
learn the truth of your fantasy.

Young child went down the coast and lay down in the tide,
waiting to be carried away to another world, another life.