o apate, goddess of deceit

I.

shield my sorrow

erase all evidence of my misdeeds

from my brow

grant me the stealth to grieve in silence

to sob in shadows

so I will survive to lie another night

II.

Arachne boasted, but it was not Athena

who sent her to a gallows

to hang upon bitter truths

-this tapestry is a masterpiece

of falsehood.- “I am the greatest

trickster of them all.”

III.

fortified with the pseudo-antiseptic

of a level gaze, I insisted

under the doctor’s scrutiny:

(and if I had only kept my coat on,

she never would have known.)