The long-limbed love of Athena,
virgin as regarded by Greeks,
unattached to one man and uninterested in marriage,
is madly in love with the rabbi, Yeshua.
His hair is long,
his beard unkempt,
and she swoons to smell his breath:
dry fish, overripe grapes, warm bread.

She cannot give wisdom in the way we understand it,
only strategy.
She wages battles of thought,
teaches Yeshua how to charm millions,
when to offer wine (My blood)
and bread (My body).

They give him a palace,
rolled out with red carpets,
polite virgins,
one of whom has gray eyes filled with war
as she watches crosses raised, blood running.