Aphrodite

You are all honest love freely given,
Fully physical and true,
And you spurned Zeus for Ares.

 I have been wondering about this
All day.

Ares: the god of war
All physical passion and power:
Bloodlust,

 Irrationally responsive,
Unthinking in his body,
Doing war
They way you do love.

You create.
He destroys.

What are you without him?
What is he without you?

And your husband
Who exposed your tryst
With this warrior god?

Nobody can say his name.

The other Olympians laughed
When they discovered your passion.

Homer says you both fled
In humiliation,

But I really doubt that.
I think you were happy to be outed.

You had thumbed your nose to Zeus.
You betrayed your husband.
You sided with Hector, a man of honor, in the Trojan War.

You have a poet’s heart:
You, with Ares, feel the pulse of everything.
You know life.

Who can touch that?

All day,
I have been wondering.