poseidon is worried.
the waters rise higher on the shores every year, and
soon it will be every month.
the hurricanes are coming more often; monsoon season is two weeks early and
three weeks longer.
he feels like he should be doing something, but he’s not sure
what he can do, so he sits in his fishing boat and casts some more line into the water.
hermes is content.
he is the CEO of his company and he barely goes to work anymore, except to sign papers.
not when he can tell his secretary to do it
or his butler
or his maid.
he feels like bruce wayne
rich, attractive, a superhero who can do anything.
persephone is frustrated.
she loves the colours of spring, the sweet scent and taste of fresh fruit
(especially the taste of pomegranates)
but whenever she tries to grow her own garden
the plants she touches
wither away
and she dreams of a dark throne in a dark hall filled with the moans of the dead.
ares is jubilant.
he thinks he is the only happy man in the entire army
even as he wakes up every day to the sounds of war, lying on hard soil and rock,
even though he stays up later than everyone else
smelling the smoke of cigarettes and burnt souls.
and every time they send more of them to afghanistan
he laughs until he cries.
artemis is furious.
just because she’s almost thirty
and a virgin, and intends to stay that way
doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with her
and she’s sick of other people’s shit.
when a man who looks like he’s forty whoops and hollers for her to take it off
she punches him in the face and tells him she eats boys like him for lunch.
dionysus is busy.
he critiques wines and acts and writes a pop culture column for the Times
he goes to broadway shows – once he was in a broadway show –
and he goes to all the best clubs downtown.
he brushes his teeth with the grape-flavoured toothpaste children use because
why not? he’s an adult and he can do what he wants.
he hardly spends any time at home. he loves it.
athena is tired.
she grades papers and teaches seminars
drones for hours on end about european history
but she’s bored of talking about what’s already happened.
her skin is wrinkling and her grey eyes are growing dimmer
with age
and she says she’s far too old to talk about the problems of the past.