Sadness, Atlas, is not defeat.
They say that it's shorter than the long retreat
From this ache that you feel all the way in your bones
When you challenge the Fates and try lifting your home.
You're alone.
Do you remember? You were damned
When they looked in your body and found the blood of a man:
Ugly brown blood, no gold in your veins.
You were forced to surrender to mortal pain.
An immortal, slain.
You once held your house upon your spine,
But it grew heavier with the passage of time.
After it fell, they say you hardly spoke.
No one speaks of what happened, but I know.
You broke.