Chapter Seven - Apollo Cites Poetry At Me
Posted: Tuesday November 28th 2023

Apollo broke away from the kiss first and stared at me expectantly. I was wondering if he was waiting for me to scream and hit him, but I didn't want to. The kiss had set my head spinning and all I could do was gazed into his eyes, feeling as though I was understanding something new, something unexpected.

Apollo broke the silence, "They say silence is Golden,
I believe it is true,
Because in this Golden silence,
My thoughts occur of you."

I groaned, "not another poem." Apollo was quite adept at knowing a poem to suit every possible moment that he would ever find himself in.

Apollo laughed, "I am the god of poetry Ariadne. I think you should expect me to spurt poetry."

"I hate it," I complained.

"I am also the god of truth and I can tell when someone is lying to me," he said smugly.

"You're an asshole." I said.

"And you're stalling," Apollo grinned wider.

"Am not," I protested.

"We just kissed and all you can do is complain about my poetry," Apollo said, "I thought I was a better kisser than that."

I closed my eyes in frustration and wracked my brain to think of what to say, but I was lost for words. Apollo kissed me again, taking my breath away and making me feel as if the world was falling out from under me. Was this what kissing anyone was like? Or was it just kissing a god? Perhaps it was just kissing Apollo.

I melted into the kiss and kissed him back. His hand cupped the back of my neck and his fingertips felt like fire on my skin. Eventually I had to push him away as I was breathless. I gasped for air in big gulps. And Apollo continued to stare at me.

"Well that was new," I said, once I had caught my breath.

Apollo laughed, the sound of his laughter reminded me of the sound of wind chimes. I had never noticed this before. I almost hated him for how calm and collected he looked when I was melting inside from the kiss.

I was suddenly very aware that we were lying on the floor and I made to sit up, but Apollo's arms around me stopped me.

"Let me get up!" I complained.

"Can't we just stay here a little longer?" Apollo practically begged, and I wondered if he too was melting inside.

*

We didn't speak about the kisses afterwards, but Apollo grew bolder with physical affection. As I slept he wrapped his arms around me and I woke up almost every morning with my head on his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me and threw me over his shoulder to tease me and played with my hair. Whilst I enjoyed all of these things I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss.

Despite this newfound physical affection, it felt as though we were tiptoeing around each other again. January turned into February and then into March and I grew more and more comfortable around the god.

"Why is Zeus leaving us unsupervised?" I asked one evening in late March. "Doesn't he worry that we're cooped up in this house creating a weapon that will destroy him?"

"Do you really think Zeus doesn't know everything that happens on Olympus?" Apollo asked. "He'll be monitoring us, making sure we aren't going against him. Plus you swore on the Styx you wouldn't go against him, even gods don't take that vow lightly."

"Hmm," I mused, pondering what he said for a moment. I turned back to the book which he had open in his lap, "read another."

Apollo smiled, "I think poetry is growing on you."

"Just shut up and read." I said.

He laughed and did so.

"at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn

the edge of the receding glacier

where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far

we are learning to make fire." Apollo read with a musicality to his voice, knowing exactly which words to emphasise and when to pause. I could listen to his voice for hours, which was a good thing as his voice was the only one I had heard in months.

"That one is nice." I said.

Apollo took my face between his hands and held it in place whilst he looked at me intently.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate-."

"Shakespeare?" I guessed. Whilst I had no education in literature, Apollo had quoted enough Shakespeare at me in the months that I had been here for me to be able to identify the man's writing.

Apollo nodded. "Guess this one!" He said.

"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

"No clue," I replied, "some old dead guy?"

"Lord Byron," Apollo said, "however that one in particular feels to me as if it could have been written about you."

My face grew warm and I dropped my eyes to my own lap.

"No," Apollo guided my face back up to look at him, "do not deprive me of the stars within your eyes."

Once again I could not quite work out my feelings, they were a mess of swirling emotions, each clambering for my attention. I felt self-conscious with him staring at me so intently, I felt confused and most of all I felt an overwhelming warmth, as if his words themselves were heating my heart.

However, I knew very well that I was not the first girl that the god of the sun had serenaded with poetry and I was under no delusion that I would be the last. But he made me feel like I was the first and in this moment I wanted to believe I would be the last.

"Apollo, I don't know what you want from me," I said.

"Nothing," he said, "and everything."

I steeled myself for a moment and then I leaned in and kissed him.

The poem extract is the beginning of the poem 'Silence is Golden' by Shelagh Bullman
The second poem is titled 'Habitation' by Margret Atwood.
The third poem is 'Sonnet 29' by William Shakespeare
The fourth poem is 'She Walks in Beauty' by Lord Byron.