Sarah-Kate Simons
3rd equal, Junior Category (11-14 years)
Athena
Immortality, eternity in the lines on her face
legends like her never die
never crumble to dust
like those temples and statues that failed
‘neath the trade-winds of time
sun burnished in the curve of her shield
she will not fall, will not yield and
yet
is her time already past,
gone with the sails on those proud Greek ships and
the dark decorations on their drinking cups and urns
and she too blind to see?
made eternal in the work of their hands but somehow
so mortal a single crack will be all it takes
for time to catch up and demand it’s due
from this one they worshipped as a goddess so
long ago, who, in the grand scheme of things
as they soon found out,
was no more immortal than
the ceramic jug on which she rests
guarded so carefully,
to make sure it doesn’t shatter.