THE WEAVE:

…7/13/21: Venus and Mars sit, 
facing a bonfire, 
overlooking the Ocean…

“I heard you let Medusa out, Mars,”
Venus smiles, side-eying him.

“Yeah, the GXDZ are pissed.  
I’ve been exiled.  
That’s why I’m on this Wyrd 
little island, with you,” 
he says, as he kicks sand. 

She grins, eyes forward, “It’s good 
to see you too, habibi.”

He rolls his eyes, “Why 
do you cast light, 
where all the Empty is, 
Venus?”

“I burn, Mars.  Same as you.
And same as Medusa, I am
not always bright. 
Sometimes, I smolder.”

“Does the ache of starlight 
ever go away?”

“It always stays.  Love 
is the wound that never closes, 
no matter how it is buried.”

He looks up at Orion, “You could 
fuel your life, with a Pain 
like Love.”

 Venus turns her heart towards him,
“Most of us do, but
we display it in anger,
or madness. We do not know 
Love. We know what we can
manipulate it into.  We reduce it 
to a craving, for more 
of something: for power, 
for security, for control,
for beauty, for knowledge,
for meaning, for a yes 
outside ourselves, for things 
ephemeral.  All things 
split off, and fade,
and eventually 
 combust with something else.
Love is in those things,
but not of them.” 

“Love never leaves?”

“Does Death leave, Mars?”

He breathes, to feel, “No, 
Death does not leave me.”
His eyes fill.

“So neither does Love,”
Venus speaks, as she
studies him. “Can I 
hug you, Mars?”

“Sure, whatever, 
Venus.”

She opens her arms,
and Mars crashes in.