Bitter cold horizontal rain

stung our faces while gale winds

shredded the sails, rendering us

helpless, smashed against the

rocky shoal, gasping for air on a strange

beach only to be imprisoned by Circe 

herself in spells of undulating force-fields.

What she did to the others, I have

no way of knowing, but

after some hours of interrogation,

she used her enchantments to turn 

me into a sea creature with gills and

flotation bladders sufficient to dive into the

deepest abyss. 

She twirled her fingers and I spun like a top

round and round – flung into the ocean from which

I came.

Curious with my still human brain,

I dove, down, down, down 

through kelp beds, past submerged fumaroles, 

and curious serranids and sperm whales into

utter darkness and immense pressure,

only to discover a light, like a headlamp

lighting the way. Strangely, it came from within,

as if by a search light mounted on my fish-head.

Down, down, down, past creatures too strange to 

describe – translucent, luminous, wheels in swarms.

Ahead, a tunnel opening onto the bottom of the ocean

from which belched hot gases tinted with green.

Still curious, I approached, and to my surprise, felt no

pain, only warmth. And so, I swam in, down; able, somehow,

to breath the gasses like air. Further down into vapors of

unknowing, through chasms of fire into a realm that was

pure ethereal music. Light blue mists swirled, creatures, some 

with three heads, others half human, half beast – mythic

creatures from the old stories – here, alive, singing – they

seemed to smile with gentle eyes.

It was an easy swim; always with the current through

Rainbows of Flowers draped with Ribbons of Mercy.

Creatures so bright no eye could look directly at them,

soaring on wings above and below as the tunnel opened

wider, still wider, expanding into infinite space.

But not empty space. Space filled with creatures, plants,

Songs, Music, Dance, Blooms, a cacophony of vibrate Beauty.

My fish-body shape-shifted on its own as the golden shore approached.

Human again, now clothed in white robes woven of sunlight,

I came to the center of all universes and knelt before an 

Ancient 

jagged 

gibbet 

still stained with 

Blood.

And, there, I knew at last, I am loved.

LRT 7 March 2023