The Bones of My Mother

athena was born of man

only because her father grew envious

of her mother 

and ate her.

down the esophageal pipe

did metis tumble --

landing in bile,

pregnant with wisdom. 

but some women 

don't disintegrate 

so easily

when swallowed whole by man.

instead

metis nurtured pallas,

gifting her with weapons and verve.

gestation soon gave way to cranium kicks,

giving daddy such a headache

and he had his head split open with an axe--

a creative way to resolve a migraine.

goddess leaped into the world

with a war cry

and purpose,

the product of a botched forgetting.

poor athena.

playmate of boys,

and keeper of athens

and owls.

so comfortable in the world of men
that she forgot her mother's bones,
leaving her father's biology
to dissolve them,

which it did in the 
form of ambrosial gloop 
that the god 
neatly wiped away.

copyright 2011