THE WEAVE:

As Venus casts a shadow
on her Path, Athena ponders 
how we Love our “enemies”, 
attached to them as catalysts 

for growth.  She thinks about 
The Tao, where Lao Tzu says,

“What is a good man,
but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man,
but a good man’s job?”

Athena’s Diary

8/12/21

Today 
is my old 
friend’s birthday.  
My best and worst

friend.  A Coyote, 
and a Truth Teller.  
A Dynamic Self.
He leads his Way

towards something 
that is his alone.
He wants to share it, but
he doesn’t.  He pushes

and pulls the tides, 
because it’s what he knows.
He believes he is uncomplicated.
There could be no woman

perfect enough for him.
I have stopped trying 
to make mySelf in his
image,  but I do observe

the Way he moves,
and contradicts himself;
just as human as I am,
and everybody else.

I sit before a penny;
copper forged in the same
year I last saw him.
I love him more deeply

Now, than I did then,
or perhaps I just understand
mySelf better.  I know
him more, yet less.

He has never pretended
to give me anything he did
not have.  All I had
to do was ask questions, 

I dared not 
ask, of my best, 
and worst, 
friend.