𝑲𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒂.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐬

Act 1.
(Overture)

Tan skin clashes on ebony hair
His eyes made of honey colored glass and flakes of gold
And his skin is made of a softer something
It's Achilles' lover, Patroclus

Who tells the tale of two bestfriends
Turned to lovers,
Into soulmates.

Beloved above most
Hated by those who weren't knowing,
Of why Achilles' hair made of sunlight, and eyes of golden dew,
Made Patroclus' head spin like ballerinas do.
It wasn't because he was a god
Or hero of all heroes
It was because he took one look at the golden boy
And marked his territory
As Achilles played the tune of lovers by moonlight on his mother's lyre.

The tune, of young boys unknowing
Of the love,
and Tragedy,
That would be their story.

1.

The myth, the lovestory, the tragedy,
Starts in a meadow of green and gold.

A ray of sun,
A spot of light through a silver lining,
Reflects on a boy who's beauty
seemed to have been touched by gods alone-
So Patroclus thought.

And while the boy stares and yearns, the other boy looks at the other,
And finds himself drawn like a moth to a flame.
As the poets may say, the two were half of each other's souls.

One looks to another,
And so it seems,
The two cannot live,
without the other.

—

When one has left, the other boy follows through
And listens to the tune of the lyre
He knows all too well;

The tune played
On his mother's lyre
By a certain boy he knew.

And by following the tune
The boy knew
That he would never lose the boy he loved so dearly
As long as that tune always kept playing.

The two find each other in peace
A journey all new
Where two unknowing boys
Would soon realize
That the love they shared for each other was more than skin-deep;

It was love that could shake the earth whole, and eat it raw.

II.

Timid confessions of love, turn into confident declarations.

Through Stolen kisses on moonless nights,
Sweet sensations of spoken desires
And unlocked pleasures,
The two yell measures of love as it echoes through starry nights.
And all seems perfect and aligned
As Achilles and his lover trace reminders of the night
Onto marble carved bodies.

They played as boys, loved as men
And admired each other,
From close or from afar,
Or in spirit of the other.
Neither one could leave the other's mind. 
They would love each other for a thousand lifetimes, and more.

The war siren rings.

Act 2.

1.

A hidden prophecy
Now reveals an ill fate
For two matured boys
Whose days are measured
In midst a blood ridden war.

But for an intrepid war hero and his lover,
Fearful and naive,
An attempt to change its outcome - to change the future - may reveal a fate worse than death.

—

"Promise me you will come back to me safely."
May have been the last words Achilles spoke to his lover,
Who was dressed in his armor.
A sorrowful kiss is shared
As if the two knew
By gut alone
And by aching of heart
That the simple promise was one that may never be fulfilled.

—

Visions of bloodied bodies and sounds of screams and clinking armor
Was the only thing Patroclus could sense,
Before meeting Hector's face.
Hector, who thought that it was Achilles dressed in Achilles' armor;
Not the scared boy, Patroclus.
But it was too late.

The boy falls back
With a spear in his chest,
seconds away from death.

He takes a staggered breath, filling his thoughts of every moment he and Achilles shared.

The last thing he could hear was screaming
And then a deafening silence...

The tune has stopped playing.

No longer can the boy
hear the lyre
As Achilles wails over his dead body,
Wondering,

why he couldn't avenge his lover's demise.

II.

May it be known
How Achilles
Sliced through dozens of men
And dragged the body
Of Hector
Across the battlefield.
Not out of rage or unmatched fury,

But out of distraught
Of seeing the body of Patroclus laid
Out in front of him;
His best friend
family,
lover,
husband,
And soulmate.

When Patroclus stepped foot on the Earth
Achilles could see the world through rose colored glasses
Soft and nimble
The color of the flowers from Persephone's youthful garden,
And the way Patroclus brought color
To the world.

And when he died,
all things soft and beautiful would die with him.

Leaving Achilles to see the world for what it was
Stripped of color, cold, unbearing.
His humanity lost,
When Patroclus left the earth.

—

Apollo had not damaged Achilles
By shooting his heel-
For Achilles was already damaged,
When part of himself ceased to exist
And starts to forget
who he is.

No one knew then
But Achilles begged to die,
Begged for mercy,
Begged for that arrow to kill him

As it is known,

That the greatest grief is to be left on earth when another is gone.

—

A final message from the two men
Hit the earth before they left
And so it went:

"May the sweet air
Tell stories of our love
Through the wind above
And through the stars and constellations
And through worn pages
Let our story of love and tragedy
Be told til the earth wears out,
And our story is made of only memories.
Let the world know
Of Achilles' act of wrath
From loss and grief,
And of Patroclus' sacrifice,
For Achilles' life.
Let the world know,
That our love could take the world,
And eat it raw.

Let the world know."

Based off: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Inspired by: The Iliad by Homer
&
"Achilles Come Down" by Gang of Youths.

Started: November 18th, 2020
Finished: December 8th, 1:11 a.m, Est.

976 words.
Kalopsia™