Vol 1 No 1 2007
Aphrodite
Hesiod called you the laughing one
Aphrodite, honey woman
I suppose because you laugh when our hearts crack
like red eggs. and we want to die
but you keep us on our knees, hoping, trying—
Well I am hurt and angry, you are aware
I have worshiped you all my life
sometimes yes as the laughing one
sometimes as a beggarly hag
for I recognized you in that poor disguise
and when the clock threw her arms in the air
and I threw my legs around the moon
you climbed inside me like the surge of a wave
I could ride, I could sail, and anyone I kissed
I was kissing you—whom I fear
I will never see again, never
kiss again. What do you give me
in return for my worship? A piece of the moon?
Alicia Ostriker