and stepped towards me.
‘Now there is a name
I have not heard in a long time.’
I saw a scar on his throat.
The mottled place where
Zeus had sliced his sword
and unleashed his siblings.
Kronos
What happens to a God-King after a war?
Does he flee? Or is he captured?
And if he is captured,
what punishment is fair for a God-King?
And if he is punished, then for how long?
There are questions I never asked,
for I never considered them.
My uncle Pallas did not speak of the war
after I was left in the Underworld
in his and Styx’s care.
He named the war a haunting memory.
He did not like to speak of its consequences.
For the first time I wondered
how he and Styx had managed to get
in Zeus’ good graces. What had they done?
My uncle especially refused to talk
of the punishment doled out to my father,
his own brother. But it was Kronos’ name
that made his neck tighten, his teeth grit
and his loud voice go very quiet.
Kronos led the Titans, my father by his side,
against his children. They lost. We lost.
