Walk a mile

Typhon

Stars paint a weak pattern,
scattered sparsely across the Cilician sky,
defeated by the blaze
that pours
from a hundred serpent heads.

Born of Earth,
standing broad,
wings spread,
wide as his ancestor's mightiest mountains,
but taller still by far,
the heavens just a breath away.

A cacophony
tears at the sky,
shredding the clouds,
as snakes shriek and scream
in a way their mortal counterpart cannot.
This is no mere mortal.

This is Typhon.

The myths will speak
of his children,
eldest{to youngest,
monsters all.
Born of his beloved Echidna,
Orthrus, Cerberus,
the Lernaean Hydra,
and others, hidden in the shadows...
Vicious,
powerful,
they make Daddy proud.

They will be legends.


Free verse. Written 5 January 2016.

Author's Note ▼

Typhon was a creature of Greek mythology, reputed to have a hundred fire-breathing snake heads as well as one human head, and to be as tall and broad as a mountain. He had feet made of snakes. Born of Gaia (Earth), married to Echnidna, he had numerous monstrous offspring. He was killed by Zeus.