The Goddess of Love and Beauty

(“The power of love is something
neither I nor you can resist.
Zeus rules all the gods,
but is Aphrodite’s slave”.
-Helen, in Euripides’s “Women of Troy”)

I
Flower of lovers is the rose
Colored by Aphrodite’s blood
When in her quest to save Adonis
She cut herself.
Symbol of love her blood is.
Since then,
The rose carries her message
when we love.
****
(Hyde Park, Chicago)
II
The ocean gave her birth,
An island her abode,
A dove perched on her hand,

A red rose near her brow.
A wryneck was her messenger.
This florid auric goddess

Throughout my life
Has been
Invisible companion.
****