to athena

i can stare into your grey eyes all day long, athena, and see storms pass, and sun too. things are not what you think they are, and in every significant way, they are better. it is no contradiction that you are beautiful and funny simultaneously, that your stories get better as you grow old, and that the glass of wine you are drinking now sits astride a million million universes, some of them with similar glasses of wine, some with nothing but echoes. you have lived through so many things, seen so many things, and fought so many battles worth fighting, against adversaries more powerful than yourself, and not been beaten. how many times have you taught Perseus to use the mirror against Medusa, or doomed poor Hector for his folly? like Odin, i have plucked out my good eye, and with it, i can see storms of my own, and sun too. we weather them together, my love, like two planets locked in orbit, storm and moon and sun and tide.