Goddess of the New Millennia
by Mureall Hebert
orge took me to the Portara in Naxos, which could be Apollo’s temple or maybe Athena’s. The doorway stood, stayed, maintained open, Jorge told me, through wars and reappropriation, and I want to be as marble as the doorway, ionic. Inside, within the gate, I suspended, stretched, limbs moonlight wide while Jorge snapped a picture. Goddess of the new Millennia, he captioned and blazoned stars around the frame. Posted, viral, liked. Liked, as if Athena [or maybe Apollo] might pluck forward through space and time, press a heart emoji, subscribe. Below me, Cycladic pools washed pearled shores where, once, the tyrant Lygdamis conceived of beauty, an idea of a temple [this temple], proving even tyrants possess hearts. Jorge tells me it’s time to leave. We Uber out, but in his viral, captioned post, I remain as marble as the doorway, forever ionic and suspended.
J
Author's Note
This story came about after reading too many headlines of tourists defacing natural and cultural landmarks or falling to their deaths in an effort to capture the ultimate selfie. We live in an age where, all too often, self-worth is derived from exterior sources rather than from within, not realizing that the beauty inside us can’t be captured on a camera lens or through initials carved in stone. Mythology will sustain, and formations, both natural and man-made, will carry their stories through generations, but, in the end, we’re all just marvelous, transient beings.
Mureall Hebert lives near Seattle, WA. Her work can be found in trampset, Tab Journal, Arc Poetry Magazine, Qu, The Normal School, The Adirondack Review, Carve, Hobart, [PANK], decomP, and elsewhere. She’s been nominated for Best Microfiction, Best New Poets, and a Pushcart Prize. Mureall holds an MFA from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.
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