Daughters of Melisseus first appeared in the author’s chapbook titled mad honey, from dancing girl press, 2018
When I flick the curtains to look outside,
I discover it’s been raining. I hadn’t noticed.
I push the window shut. The books facing
the window are already sun-stained,
rain-pocked. I decide to make a cup of
tea. The honey in the cabinet has been left
open, the honey half-crystallized. I dig
it out with a knife while the tea steeps,
and think of you, Adrasteia. Bees fill your family
tree— honeycomb turned rank becomes the elixir
that is your evening wine. Your sister’s name
becomes a stand-in for any old goddess.
You become interchangeable with the arbiter
of rewards and punishments—only, in these
ancient linguistics, epithet comes to mean
you are what you do. Is this the injustice
you cannot stop your pen from working out? This
torment: what is inescapable is simply yourself.
