Athena Watches

This is Part Five in my Odyssey retelling The Return.

Part One – Penelope Waits is here.

Part Two – Telemachus Schemes is here.

Part Three – Calypso Sings is here.

Part Four – Eurylochus Laments is here.

Athena and Poseidon, Athenian black-figure neck amphora C6th B.C.

 

Athena Watches

 

it was not meant to happen like this

he wasn’t meant to take so long

to get home

 

events can spiral

even out of our reach

when you play everyone

like puppets the strings

can get tangled

 

the human race is nothing but story

individual lives

threads of narrative

to be told in the dark night

by the roaring bonfire

under a black sky burning

full of stars

 

we gods know this

& yet we also know

that we are part of this story too;

a story within a story

 

I contrived for everything

to turn out the way I wished

yet the path always branches

onto an infinite number of

other paths to take

 

he was imprisoned on that island

for so long I told her

she had to let him go

 

when he does return

he will be alone

there will be reunions &

reconciliations & bloodshed

 

I have done my best

to set things right

 

yet there are always other pathways

 

Joanne Fisher

 

Athena holding ship’s stern, Athenian red-figure lekythos C5th B.C.

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