66. Kokytos
Kokytos
It was a sound so full of despair,
so profoundly mournful
that I wanted to cover my ears.
What could make such a noise?
I squinted my eyes to see another river,
this one cut between a smooth floor.
So perfectly shaped,
I almost didn’t think of it
as a river at all.
All around it walked spirits,
translucent, barely there,
threads of mourning connecting them.
Every now and then
they would stop to drink
from the waters of this river,
and as they lifted their heads
they would wail and mourn,
all over again.
‘This is Kokytos,’ Styx whispered,
‘The river of lamentation.
Every soul who drinks these waters
feels a mourning so deep they cry out.
But the river’s water is addictive
and they cannot stop drinking it.’