The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

his beauty shone like a flame, vital and bright, drawing my eye against my will.

There was a vividness to him, even at rest, that made death and spirits seem foolish.

he smiled, and his face was like the sun.

We were like gods, at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.