Ios

Ios*

checking in for aeons here, the early* one, saying her looks are ageless doesn’t even touch it, first shy at the dark counter until she smiles, we put her up in the sea and sky suite and she tells us in lingering how she loves to watch the stars die down as she draws

the muslin round her and sleeps atop the day, in what club she spent the night we never ask, she hums to herself a glimmer on her lips, remembering the dance floor a world away where the boys the girls she gives the glad eye will know her as celestial

riverside
march 2020

*More usually anglicised as ‘Eos’ from the Attic Greek, in Homeric Greek Ἠώς ‘Ios’, the goddess of dawn in Greek mythology.

From Wikipedia:
‘Eos fell in love several times. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, it was the jealous Aphrodite who cursed her to be perpetually in love and have an insatiable sexual desire because once had Eos lain with Aphrodite’s sweetheart Ares, the god of war. This caused her to abduct a number of handsome young men…’

*Another Homeric epithet for the dawn, Ἠριγένεια (Iriyenia), the early born.

Copyright ©2020 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved

Acknowledgements to Keith Jarrett for use of his ‘In a Quiet Place’ in this recording