Thetis' Reprise

Watch as Peleus woos his shape shifter,

Braving all the forms of that free Ocean drifter.

Thetis refused

To be caught,

To be wooed.

But at the end of the tussle

We learn that his muscle

Was much mightier than her feisty refusal.

                        An unlikely Thetis,

                        I tested your will.

                        Tango till morning

                        Circling until—

Lost in the bluster and heat of it all

I stood there and watched that last fortress fall.

            Who thought that mortals could play that sea nymph’s game

            That it would be no God to put King Peleus to shame.

            Yet alas, at this moment when the sea nymph’s adrift,

            She looks back at the moments, her silver laugh shifts—

            It darkens and crumbles in memory by light

            But resumes with a tinkle and sparkles at night.

Let the blush rise to her playful cheeks,

Let her smile, let her thrill, let her knees go weak.

She’ll shift through her shapes and settle at one—

A make-believe predator till the sky lifts the sun.

And then once again, the cycle reruns

Sadness, a flutter, sweet dreaming begun.