Mythologies

Hera threw Hephaestus from Olympus,

just chucked him right down at some Neireids 

taking a breather from collecting seahorse census data

with a vigorous sea foam battle.

The Nereids gave Hepaestus a bath 

and taught him to be kind and hard-working.

Hera threw Hephaestus from Olympus 

because he was ugly and deformed 

and there are no standards for behavior among gods

beyond being obstructively pretty and uncomfortably stupid. 

And Hera was too blind to recognize Haphaestus' mind 

For the numinous clockwork of its genius.

Hera threw Hepaestus from Olympus,

and later he turned his fecund mind to blacksmithing,

forging feet for himself and trinkets for the pantheon,
fixing the profoundly shoddy plumbing around Olympus.

And for all that, they married Aphrodite off to him as a cruel joke.

(Aphrodite, who fucked around and played footsie with Ares and made

duck-faces into reflecting pools for hours on end).

Hera threw Hepaestus from Olympus,

which turned out perfectly fine for Hephaestus,

For from the core of the earth he forged a Harley for himself

and rode off with some Neireids

To plumb the depths of every mystery the earth still offered him,
disavow the why for the how and the when,

to fashion philosophies from hammers,

and a colossal padlock for the feet of the mountain

The keys to which he pawned off 

on the first middle school he found.