Athena Creates “The Melody of Many Heads”*
︎︎︎ Carol Wise
︎ MAR 9, 2022
Salt stream in the box
derma/scythe crash
on shore
in system solute/ion
cloud
Na+
Cl — Na+
Na+ Cl—
Cl— Na+
Na+
Cl —
Cl— Na+
Na+ Na+
Cl— Cl—
Cl—
Na+
break of shard
curving reflect/ion
swan elderly swan neck
swan wrinkle pale in
the poem parch/
pig/ment
stolen ducts weep
belted red tongue red
of mortal oxidat/ion
shard of broken
site of goddess tending charge
inverted pipe imitate/ion stolen
from neck lamentat/ion of
solitary gorgoN/a+
split into
gilded blade
pale horse feather
*From Pindar’s PYTHIAN 12
derma/scythe crash
on shore
in system solute/ion
cloud
Na+
Cl — Na+
Na+ Cl—
Cl— Na+
Na+
Cl —
Cl— Na+
Na+ Na+
Cl— Cl—
Cl—
Na+
break of shard
curving reflect/ion
swan elderly swan neck
swan wrinkle pale in
the poem parch/
pig/ment
stolen ducts weep
belted red tongue red
of mortal oxidat/ion
shard of broken
site of goddess tending charge
inverted pipe imitate/ion stolen
from neck lamentat/ion of
solitary gorgoN/a+
split into
gilded blade
pale horse feather
*From Pindar’s PYTHIAN 12
Carol Wise is a graduate of the University of Georgia and lives in Athens, Georgia for now. You can find her work in Stillpoint Literary Magazine, DELUGE (from Radioactive Moat), Metatron Press's micro poem series, and Dream Pop Press. When not collaging poetry with a lick-and-stick method, Carol constructs elaborate patio-forts for herself and her cats, Tit and Boof.