Athena Nike by Evie Hodgetts
The victory of mortal man rested
in the palm of your hand. Giver and taker
of life. Now, they celebrate you.
Clipped wings.
Your agony, when the stonemason
hacks your wings off, strips flesh
like opening a fossil, exposing
your ribs. Your cries of pain echo
in the walls of your temple. Sound drips
down stone, like the tears you fought back.
Stand tall. Divine feminine. They shackle
your bare-breasted victory, tied down
to a plinth as blood tumbles in swathes
down your rocky olive skin, back
and thighs. Marred meat.
Mortal man stops and stares. You bear it
somehow, permanence of glory brought to
your city. Maybe they respect you. Understand
how you, woman, suffered. Thick scabs on your back
pothole-like craters disrupting refinement.
Sacred ground. Your sacred feet
on sacred stone.
Note: ‘Nikes’ were ancient Greek statues of gods depicted with wings to represent the fleeting nature of victory. However, the Athena Nike, which commemorated victory in the Greco-Persian Wars, was depicted as wingless, as an attempt to make Greek victory seem permanent.
Contra Mundum – Against Opposition by Evie Hodgetts
My hand cups my stomach gently, cradling
The tiny outward pucker. Pebbles crunch beneath my
Feet, like the sound of shattering ice, or the cracking
Of old bones.
I am no butterfly, and there is no pin
Pushed through my thorax.
The ocean sweeps wide in front of me.
Wine-dark, the swelling of bitter waves makes my toes
Curl inside my shoes. A hand touches my shoulder, the careful
Brush of the wind.
You get to choose, she says. Tender.
Mercifully, it is not
An illusion.
I am grateful that I was not enfettered to
A single path that fate lay out for me. Beauty
Or not, I could make the decision. Informed consent -
A phrase so clinical, but one that wields
Such power. Contra mundum -
Against opposition.
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