I read a story once,
about the Strait of Messina.
And two beautiful women
who made a home between the waves.

The gods and their children
envied the ferocity of the women.
So in one fell swoop,
they snatched the earth from beneath their toes
and banished them to the only place they believed deserved them.
And so it was.

While earth picks at the cracks of its surface,
tearing itself limb from limb,
conflicts in the ocean merely strengthen the wave
soon to return to the rhythm of the sea.

How foolish the gods must have been,
to pour such power and lust
into the wildest weapon of all;
one that could sink its quarrel into the fractures of land they called home – if it so wished.

Men sang fear into their legacies,
the same men that raided villages for kleos
robbed mothers of their children,
and girls of their free-will.

But of course – the women within the waves were the monsters.