Deidamia's Reproach to Pyrrha

THE BACKGROUND STORY The myth of Achilles on Skyros is as follows. Rather than allow her son Achilles to perish at Troy as prophesied, the sea-nymph Thetis sends him to live at the court of Lycomedes

When your mother brought you here to join us

A bond was made as your eyes shone,

Beauteous red-haired daughter of Peleus,

My confidante and companion.

Boys glimpse visions of a she-male form

As beauty brooks no edge or error

So shores that shift become the norm:

It was thus with you my Kerkysera.

From your mother the Nereid Thetis

You were quicksilver like the autumn moon

As gay and constant as the changing tides

Jostling tender - caressing rough - in turn.

Each day we skipped from wharf to castle

The carefree, careless girls of Skyros

Till desire and doubt and blush gave battle

Awaiting the feast of Dionysus.

Then was I the master of us, shy maid -

Nub and n****e stretched against the cloth,

Easing, seeking, touching as we played -

Unafraid of any warrior’s wrath.

Fickle sea nymph, tonguing salty skin taut,

As arm to arm, chest to breast, cuddled close

I stroked your thigh and your sweet pleasure sought, 

My finger tips alive as passion rose.

Roused to act you found yourself revealed

Salving wounds in love’s emotion

Sheathing the sword to set aside my shield

Finding peace in sweet commotion.

Was it anger then at this release

That set you bound for war at Troy

When that old trickster peddler Odysseus

Plied his guile to girlhood love destroy?

But freckled fem, I needed no defense -

It seems your shame a baser man concealed.

There was no cause to take offence

It matters not which skin, when skin’s revealed

Your brittle pride will serve you well in strife

Let warlike acts subdue your deep unease:

And I will act the duteous little wife

Though making love you dream of Patrocles.