"The Birth of Aphrodite, the Self-Made Goddess" by Zuggie Tate

The Birth of Aphrodite, the Self-Made Goddess

When seafoam met Titan’s blood 
a spark self-actualized. Took form & blossomed 
a transition, a birth, a bloom 

Many can’t love themselves
into existence 

Aphrodite did

And I bet when she rose from the ocean 
The sun blushed 

And I bet when she stepped foot on 
land the trees became shy 

And I bet all of nature came 

rushing to catch a gander, everything gawking 
at the goddess who was her own mother 

A deity that never needed a handout 

She created herself in her own image. Blueprint 
for many a self-imagined woman to follow

And I bet when she sprung from the ether
the moon cried. 

And I bet when she looked up 
the stars cried 

I know she was glowing, I know she was shining, 
I know all other gods were jealous and she, beautiful as she was,

couldn’t have cared less





Appears in Abomination Pink (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2026)

---

Zuggie Tate is a poet from Cleveland, Ohio, and author of Abomination Pink, Sibling Rivalry Press 2025. Her work has appeared in Black Midwest Anthology, Wasteland Review, Exposed Bone Lit Mag, Shade Literary Arts, Emerge Anthology, BIPOCRYPHA, the Quarry, and Verum Literary Press. She is the recipient of Margie Hope’s 2023 Living Heritage Award. In 2025, Zuggie was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize’s Verge Fellowship, the Literary Cleveland’s Amplify Fellowship, and was a Lambda Literary Fellow. She has also held fellowships with Twelve Literary Arts, Assembly of the Arts, and The Watering Hole.

Instagram | Order Abomination Pink