Ephemeral Seas & Matcha Tea

Grace St and Monument Ave in Richmond, Virginia

I am

Bathing

Soaking

In mythology

Vengeful water spirits

And unexpected Hestias

With tart pineapple refreshers

And fishy matcha tea

Why can’t these spirits

Bless me with a good drink?

I wouldn’t have met Testrel

Or Dementia

Without Macha

So

Maybe

It’s for the best?

Now-stormy seeds

Buried just below my psyche

Wading in such watery depths

They swim

I encounter these ephemeral spirits weekly now

Just as suddenly as they surface,

They sink

Waiting in those depths

For what?

Will I meet them again?

Does Testrel curse me

As he cursed Dementia?

I only gave him

A few paragraphs

Of life

Why does Zeus get to rule

In the minds of so many

For so long

While Testrel and Tethys

Get just a few lines?

Diminishing returns

In supporting roles

They live

Like the green flash of lightning bugs

I see on this walk at dusk

“Nature” reminds me

That we’re all

Ephemeral

Bound to be snacks one day

For the circling bats

The birth of the galaxy

The sun

The Earth

These spirits waited eons

Just to be born for a few fleeting moments

Maybe that’s how it is for all of us

Maybe that’s enough

Who said the enslavers

Deserve monuments

On Monument Ave?

Now relegated to a highway overpass

Apparently

They decay

Just like the rest of us

Destined one day

To be swallowed whole

By Helios himself