Alcyone and Ceyx, queen and king,

stepping on the toes of deities, 

thinking it all a little game

to call each other an Olympian name. 

 

But Hera and Zeus don't find it much fun

and, quite gleeful to unleash their wrath,

they feel that Ceyx deserves a gift:

yes, a thunderbolt on his ship.

 

A metamorphosis then for Morpheus,

god of dreams, turns him into Ceyx,

an apparition meant for Alcyone's sleep:

he makes her privy to his perished fate

and, stifled by sorrow, 

she chooses a pelagic grave.

 

The rulers of the Olympian roost

now in more of a merciful mood,

the tragic pair turn into halcyon birds,

and when Alcyone needs to make a nest,

her father being Aeolus certainly does help:

he gladly calms the winds and stops the storms, 

and this is how our halcyon days are born.