Athena
Touches me
Appropriately
I’m inside her
When her baby cries
Just out of breech
In the other womb
My mania cycles
Sorrow despairs
I spill poems
In Athena’s lap
End a sentence with
A proposition
Hips full of mischief
Pique my interest
Loose lips sink
My battleships
Athena measures
Romantic poets
By the girth
Of their verse
Sorrow draws
Short breaths
Mania spray-paints
Sixteen chapels
In a low-cut dress
Hips full of mischief
Pique my interest
Loose lips sink
My battleships
I spill secrets
In Athena’s lap
Squeeze myself in
Big boy pants
Sorrow prints cursive
Mania face-paints
A traveling circus
Athena counts
Contractions
Backwards
In fractions
Sorrow grows in sighs
Mania builds
Soundproof nurseries
In the blink of an eye
Hips full of mischief
Pique my interest
Loose lips sink
My battleships
I’m beside Athena
When her baby
Throws momma
A bridal shower
My mania cycles
Sorrow despairs
I’m beneath Athena
When her baby
Throws mommy out
With the bathwater
Charles B. Snoad 