The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

River Styx in Modern Context~ By Sofia Lago

9/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Achilles holds his breath
beneath the current bubbling over the tip
of his little boy, button nose. Mama holds him down,
her hand a boulder on his chest, but
with one leg he kicks out in
humanity’s Darwinian instinct.
Not just the heel, but the whole foot.
 
It isn’t logical any other way, in modern times.
 
In modern times, Hades is
a public park’s baseball diamond in 1996 suburban America,
and Styx is a river wrapped around its perimeter,
hidden by pricker bushes and dogwood trees in bloom.
Thetis isn’t Thetis,
whose wedding marked the first day of war fought for
pomegranates and beauty pageants,
but Theresa or Tara or
maybe some non-T name—Marcia. Victoria. Alice.
The possibilities are infinite.
 
Achilles is just shy of three and Mama imprisons him
below the pink petal coated river surface, promising,
Any second now, any moment longer, my good, brave, never dying boy,
until she drags him up up up
into the light of a sun kept stationary in space,
never once pulled by the chariot of a Titan or god spelled with a lowercase g.
He gapes,
little boy mouth flapping like a trout dying from fresh air,
his still developing lungs made into sheep-leather wineskins
half-full with water churning too much for mosquitoes to rest, so
she thumps at his back--
thwack, thwack--
leaving behind fingerprint bruises on skin.
The River Styx flows back through his throat,
burning as it goes.
 

Author Bio:
Sofia Lago is a New Yorker studying abroad in the UK, working towards a PhD in folklore and history. She loves mythology and fairy tales from around the world, and frequently incorporates both into her writing. Currently, she holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in Museum Studies. She's travelled to sixteen countries, and hopes to reach more. Her works, both prose and poetry, have previously appeared in Folio, Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal, Birds Piled Loosely, A Lonely Riot, and Junto Magazine. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org