Activating Athena*

©Cameron Altaras

Straight front trouser creases

Stiff and pointy collar bands

Shirt-tail hems and

Long sleeve button cuffs

Smoothing wrinkles on the outside

Taming screaming on the inside

Steaming out the last vestiges of truth

Turning my churning from front to back

On the ironing board

One day, though,

One day, the iron slipped

And scorched my flesh

The red-hot oozing

The perfect pretense

And I unleashed

          The war cry of my soul

On that day

I knew I had to go.

Dust heaps of my desires

Void of voice

And losing ground

Patriarchy’s logic deconstructing

Mere womanly whims and

Impractical dreams

From all appearances

I really could make do

With time surely

I would grow accustomed to the ice

Reshaping my heart

But one day

One day, my last spark of inner light

Refused to grow dim

Flashing female temper

Howling long-forgotten vile obscenities

And I unleashed

            The war cry of my soul

On that day,

I absolutely knew I had to go.

I called upon Athena

To guide my battle strategy

Evaluate and execute

Pragmatic detailed planning to

Seek justice for my self

And kill my fear of conflict

Craft my rusted ploughshares into swords since

Pacifism’s training and religious condemnation

Had not served me well

On that day

That day, out of sheer necessity

Standing toe to toe with my once-loved foe

I donned her golden armor

I felt my boldness grow

And I unleashed

The war cry of my soul

And on that day

I declared: “It is now my time to go.”

* “Athena becomes activated at any point that a victimized woman begins to plan a means of surviving or getting away.” Jean Shinoda Bolen, Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives. (New York: Harper, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition, 2014), p. 84.

This poem is published in Cameron Altaras and Sharla Nafziger, Confronting the Patterns that Silence Us (Seattle, WA: G Scott Works, 2023), 38.