Athena of Dreams

Not the Athena of your dreams, mind you,
But the god who’s to dreams as Athena
Was to Odysseus—trouble-maker,

Schemer, backer, props and costumes, winner.
The Athena of dreams is their patron,
As it were, in the battle against day.

Grey-eyed like the twilight, glaucous as waves,
Planning some ridiculous adventure
To put dreams in charge of the waking world.

Why? Those kinds of gods are instigators,
The ones who challenge the most basic rules,
The reasons sometimes things turn upside down.

If humanity’s ever to shake loose
Of deep behaviors, it needs Athenas.