The Births of Aphrodite and Athena

The one swirled out of foam, the other mind;
The one disturbs the fish, like bright, lost jacks
Around flung testicles; the other takes
A scholarly approach, as is designed
By scrolls unrolled to myth. The cause of beauty
Is sex; the cause of wisdom is a thought
That shows the hallowed way it must be brought
Into the world. Athena has a duty,
But Aphrodite’s an opal of desire,
And though she’s born of sea, she makes a fire.
Athena is more cautious, purposeful;
She knows the impulse, yet she acts on rule.
One rises with a kiss, from fields of coral;
The other walks with armor and a moral.