Athena by Claudia Drake

For one of my classes, I had to pick a piece of art and write a poem about it. I found Claudia Drake's Athena digital collage completely intriguing. For me, this image made me think of pealing someone's thoughts apart. What if you had the ability to just look inside someone's head and see their memories through their eyes. Here's the poem I wrote about it:

In a world where communication is tangible,

Language as we know it becomes obsolete

Our minds ripen like fruit, ready to peel

The layers of our being

Across the room is a prosperous man

He puts his head in his hands

and ponders in silence

The things he would never say

Become unwrapped like a present

Like the first present on Christmas

I pull away to reveal

The moments he treasures

The images once only for him

He blankets the death of his daughter.

Her youthful beauty lives in eternity

Within the fortitude of his mind

Outside there is a happy couple

The hold hands gently

while walking in the park

Who would question such love?

Like a fresh orange in the spring

I unpeel what's seen on the surface

The things he thought he hid so well

The memories he never shared

He sheds a matrimonial secret

His mistress's silhouette

Haunts the crevasses of his body

In a humanity stripped of assumptions

Revealing the beauty of truth