A Salute to

Planet Neptune

He’s god of the sea, god of the unseen,
of the deep space, where light loses its way, 
where shadows squirt from words too dark to say,
a god who answers prayers we know not of.
His horses killed a grandson … caught between
a father’s wrath and Phaedra’s violent love.

Impassive blue, with jaunty cirrus streaks
like gashes venting hurricane winds below,
he isn’t one whose undercurrents show.
The grim advance of counter-spinning storms
to a king’s brother’s layered motive speaks,
to the dire work ambivalence performs.

The Sun is planet-like in Neptune’s sky,
an evening star to portside, cruising by.

See more from Dysfunctional Family of Planets

Karl Stull is a retired copywriter and editor. He began in textbook publishing and moved on to marketing. Now he writes for the love of words.