to all those washed grey by shame

as father sun rises from mother river, his yellow love sparkles on her blue surface.“be patient” says father sun with his yellow persistence, “come faster” says mother river with her blue impatience.
 the sun creeps through the sky as the river bubbles with frustration below,

until they reunite in love under the grey of night.

the river embraces the sun, blue and yellow mixing together, until a green rock sprouts from the river’s folds. the next morning father sun rises and spies the green gem nestled in the arms of his lover. his yellow love turns sour, his light bathing the rock in red jealousy.

mother river does not understand the sun’s violence, painting over the jealousy with splashes of red love.

splash

red cattle appear mooing

splash

a red dog barking

splash


red wings beating the red air

whipping the red earth into a super saturated spiral

splash

the red world is born --

and so is geryon.

a joyful red dragon, tending red cattle and playing with their little red dog,

geryon lives one with colour.

each morning geryon embraces the full spectrum of life with wings stretched red and wide -- basking in the yellow light
 washing orange exuberance over their red skin, grateful for the blue water
 dripping purple mystery onto their red lips. geryon even welcomes green in the distance, where blue meets yellow and herakles grows in strength to kill geryon.

“it stands on six hooves that grow from its monster body, with six claws that sprout from its monster chest and monster wings that stretch from its monster back to shroud its face in red monster darkness. my father sun has warned me of the monstrous dangers of redness” proclaims herakles.

greedy and naive, the sun’s son champions his father under the grey shame of night. trampling over shades of laurel, herakles stumbles through the bleached landscape searching for geryon.

a strange red rustle --

herakles looks up.

geryon’s wings spread red and wide to welcome herakles.

as he looks into geryon’s smiling red eyes, herakles realizes there is not a monster in sight.

a new colour erupts between them -- the colour of innovation
-- red mixed with green and yellow and blue and orange and purple and any other colour you can imagine.

this new hue of love paints the air with fresh light

until shame creeps into herakles’ heart and washes him grey.

herakles rejects newness

and slices straight through geryon.

geryon’s body cracks open

red wings split apart

halved

leaking

heart broken

geryon’s red life oozes from his greying body

draining back to mother river’s folds with a final

reddish

splash.

in geryon's absence,

the little red dog howls at the grey sky,

and the red cattle low mournfully.

herakles covers his ears to escape the red cacophony.

unable to find peace, he covers his eyes.

searching for red in the blackness of his eyelids, herakles leaks red tears that spill over his grey face and drench him in love.

redness pours out of herakles

red wings gush from his back

red love flows from his heart, battling the shame that painted it grey.

splash

grey is banished

by herakles' red love dawning.

as father sun rises from mother river and his yellow love sparkles on her blue surface, herakles' wings spread red and wide to welcome the full spectrum of life as red tears drip from his face.

the red world stands firm

tended by geryon's new love.

if you too welcome all of life's colours, look to where the yellow sun meets the blue river and find the red world. if you listen closely to the redness, you can hear the moo of red cattle and the bark of a little red dog.

the end of night's grey shame lives where you hear the sound of wings beating the air --

proclaiming redness

for geryon

and for you.