the cellar
would keep me away
from man’s ugly gaze
thought my father

but no lock or latch
no bolt or vault
could keep away light
and into my prison a golden rain poured
through a slit in the ceiling

i was impregnated in an impregnable prison

when he heard of the visit
i was thrown
out of the cellar and into a box
a wooden one
with holes for air

my baby and me
tossed into the sea
to our deaths
all because of an oracle’s whisper that my son,
the golden boy,
would outshine my father

a blessing brought us fish and water
keeping us away from hades’ gates a little longer

i arrived with the sea
washed up on the shore
caught in a fisherman’s net
like the fish before me

i was delivered to a king
who would make me his wife
i journeyed from prison to wedlock
when all i wanted was to
swim free