Divine Intervention

Dear Joan--

How much easier for you
knowing your part in The Big Plan!
Divine purpose being so much
less ambiguous than say
Temporal Lobe Lesions
causing Extremes of Emotion
with Hyper Religiosity
and sensations of 'Eating' or Yellow
like Van Gogh or Plath
or mere outdated Daddy Issues

Although perhaps while burning
you may have briefly
experienced a lapse of courage
lost your faith
thinking your God had forsaken you

In your day they took it seriously
when one claimed that God
or the Devil made them do it
although a sign being still
required  for you the word of a king
being good enough

Had you not fried
like a KFC menu option
your Black Box
as the Almighty They
have decided to nickname the Brain
and all its complex
reasoning and faulty wiring

would've become lab material
more food for Men's brains
and merely Science instead
of World History

Thankfully no 30 minute meals for you
that don't account for hours
of shopping and chopping
and prep time
or traffic to contend or compete with
recipes to swap from The Chew
or bad Facebook photos

or your mother's loom
as you would've preferred

You skated really
the day-to-day torture
of a needy man
price of gas, carpools, weather
bitchy teenagers
crabbing that their iPad knockoff
isn't as good as the real one
with Retinal display
or enough memory for infinite apps

cyber bullies
online ophiles
cars and bars and other divine wars
Righteousness and martyrdom
so much less complicated
than malls and groupons and xanax

O to be a warrior in God's army!
Fighting on the side of Justice and Light
alongside a man in his natural element
away from diaper changes
and electric bills
and pubescent rages
easy-no-tool furniture from ikea
latest virus or diarrhea
no broken homes or alcoholic parents--
Just show up, fight and dramatically die
dressed as a man.

We should all be so lucky.

Everyday Goddess

Used to be all women rolled into one;
Yet many days I felt like none.

Once able to shine, thought I could sing;
Told you think you know every thing!

Daughter of Zeus and Leda the Swan;
No chicken or quail, a bird to look upon.

Trapped by marriage to a boring man;
First chance to leave I took up and ran--

Vainglorious wings once broken free;
A simple Wooden Horse betraying me.

An end finally came to the war I'd caused;
Whose carnage only serv'd to give me pause

That one face could launch a thousand ships;
Slaughter of young men for a wayward kiss

Igniting all the same Old Men's Wars;
Those who never learn from bloody shores.

My husband Menalaeus came at night;
Claimed his Queen of Sparta as his Divine right

Drew back his sword and swore an oath--
How long will it take this bitch to roast?

I stood steadfast prepared to die;
But no Goddess ever dares to cry

Swallowed hard pulled back my robe;
Exposed my heart remained composed.

Beauty and honor moved his sword away;
His wife once again I became.

*Helen of Troy

Now I scratch my head and my nose;
My skin is dry between my toes.

Its true all they say about a rose--
Yet she dares want more than to be a rose

Though others envy or prize it highly;
She prefers to be another thing entirely.