Page 18 of Hekate: The Witch

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and visit an open pyre

where we would build a small fire

and she would play with the smoke,

swirl it till it became messages

she would give to her waiting Oracles.

Her careful craft was hypnotic,

and there in the garden

with the distant sound of birds.

I thought it would be my life forever.

Between green grass and blue skies,

the sound of the sea so close by.

Here I was so far under the earth

I could only see the roots of trees.

I once ate fruit from

orchards that belonged to us.

Nothing grew underground.

Because nothing could grow

where everything came to die.

I was hungry and I was expected now

to name this dead placehome.

In Those First Few Days

Styx did not speak much to me.

I asked her where my uncle Pallas was.

She told me her husband was out hunting

and would not return for a while.

Then she told me never to touch

the water within her river if I wanted to keep my voice, for her waters

were known to destroy immortal voices.

Hades vanished after my mother left,

back to his godly duties towards his realm.

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