by Alira Malan
hands splayed at gates to greet the waking morn’,
skies part and through them shine the god’s domain,
your rose-kissed skin with flowers i adorn,
from windows sing cicadas freed from pain.
robes of saffron no softer than your glance,
smile dulcet, soft, unlike the brother sun,
in star-lit skies the sister moon did lance,
these timeless moments, quicker lost than won.
your heav’nly glow cascades like liquid gold,
the child of skies cerise to unveil blues,
no more the tale of lovers growing old,
each day brings new joys, each of diff’rent hues.
the past suggests a wariness of boons,
lover of man, sister of suns and moons.
a note from the artist-
"the sonnet surrounds the titaness of the dawn, eos, from greek mythology. i’ve always been a huge mythology nut, and the three children and hyperion (heavenly light) and theia (the ether of the blue sky) have always been my favourite—selene, the moon, helios, the sun, and eos, the dawn. a myth that surrounds the latter is one of her mortal love, tithonus, whom she loved so much she asked zeus, the king of the gods, for his immortality. zeus granted her wish, but with a cruel twist—tithonus would be immortal, but he would continue to age. as the years passed, eos’ lover grew weak and frail, begging for death as he continued to age indefinitely until she took pity on him and turned him into a cicada. a melancholic little tale, but it’s always been one of my favourites."