Ap rodite

She finds me shivering like a fool in a pool of lonesome moonlight.

36 Poetry I watch ritual beauty cascade onto solid ground standing upright and unbound. For a second I think I might need you

Aphrodite, so briefly. To corner me,

build your golden walls around me, barred, unbalanced,

endlessly enraptured. She is giving love a new name,

she is making us so tame. Cutting our hair and

giving it to the animals. Locks for the languid.

Heavy eyes of the mammal. She can see it in our eyes,

spirals of sunlight when Love’s feet touch the ground, merciless is the footfall. Is it a mistake?

Who is your maker? Who gave you your name?

I was born in alabaster foam, with sanguine roses on my cheeks.

Angels contort their tongues to give me my name.

A warrior’s muse, a lover’s wisdom. A heavenly creature of persuasion,

dipped in earthly poison, a celestial sin given new reason,

lingering in this drifting tide. I like to think she keeps me

on the wings of the grand creature, Love. Aphrodite, she came by so briefly,

shimmering. And shimmering, she came to throw me into the sea.