We want there to be something,
someone, even better,
aggressively benign,
both charm and care.

A god not strictly defined,
yet influential,
the kind met, not on a Damascus Road,
but walking down from the Parthenon
past the Theater of Dionysus into the city.

Particulate divinities,
not one and the same.

Stars and clouds observed,
raveled narratives unraveled.

Gods come, they go,
their hot weight
worms well into our will.

They while us away.