how to love a mortal:

i.
stay away from him. gods
do not love. you are a god.
do not love something
that will someday die.

ii.
small-boned, soft-hearted,
voice smooth as stones.
when he breaks his ankle
you think to yourself:
oh, how easily the world
wounds him. oh,
how easily he bleeds.

iii.
he kisses you first. he
is thirteen and human
and he will someday die.
do not kiss him back.

iv.
you say: mother, can
a god love a boy?
thetis sharpens her teeth.
she says: well, what good
has love ever done?

v.
you were born a weapon
but you kiss him anyway.
you kiss him because
he is beautiful and temporary
and you do not yet understand
what it means to kill.

vi.
making love to him feels
like being remade, doesn’t it?
here, the knife in his mouth.
here, the starlight in his eyes.
here, his sweat on your tongue
like salt of the river Styx.

vii.
in this dream, you
kill Agamemnon.
in this dream,
there is no war.
in this dream, 
he lives forever.

viii.
he puts your clothes on
and you forget he is mortal.
he puts your clothes on
and he forgets it, too.

ix.
when the world burned,
your mother whispered:
you knew, didn’t you?
i told you
not to love something 
that will someday die.

x.
you do not say:
i knew, but i was selfish.
i am a god.
it is my nature.