Oh, Gods

A woman, back to pillar

Cross-legged holds

Her baby in her lap

Holds out her hand

As Jupiter happens to approach

Overwhelmed by the pity

He felt he should feel

He tips to her and

Dumps a shower of gold coins

So many the baby is buried

In the small Roman coins

They fit in his ears

And fill his mouth

And he is suffocated

–

She looks up and Jupiter

Has vanished

Having given her the gift

Of suffering

–

An angel, nearby, waiting

Astonished, furious

Leans around the stainless steel column

And drops a single life

Into her lap

–

To the woman holding

Her tear-wet, gold-smelling

Hands up the world

Seems unendingly cruel

Her hands seem enormous

And are flushed red

Holding now the renewed baby

Her ears are howling

–

Athena, wrapped in her coat

Of light descends the burning

Step!

Calms the woman’s ears!

Blinds her to grief

Blinds her to everything-

Stops her nose from smelling

Her mind from remembering

And makes her into a child

And lifts her to heaven!

Leaving in a pile of gold

Coins a child, not hers

The two speak together

“Someone else’s”

–

All that pass by take coins

Removing them from his mouth

And his eyes

Till he lays a totem

A shield forgotten in the shed

Against remembrance

A burnt corded thing

A branch fallen

–

But he kindled to himself

Slowly-

Growing into his own speech

The many-mothered

Harried-minded boy

His voice the sound of sticks

Breaking in the woods

–

He bedded on greasy cardboard

Lain away from the sun

Until he struggled from

His netting

And grew plump in the light

As grapes might

–

Athena guided his hand

Working tongue out

On his resume

In the shade of his rooms

She washed her tits

And hummed to him

To calm his anger

–

Years passed…

On the day he was set to die

Before he could get in

And close the door he dissolved

Into a pile of coins

Nickels now

–

With a flash and a shout

His mother appeared! descending

And bending to him took

It all- checking his pockets

For every piece

She scooped them in her apron

As she turned, kicking up a heel

And threw back her head

In a laugh

Grabbing the hand of someone

A man, only shadow

But for his beard a darker

Shadow – and disspeared again

–

Athena from behind the door

Steps mincingly

Pleased at her success