MEDUSA, THE GORGON

I, Medusa the Gorgon

With eyes that turn to stone

All men who brave the waters

Of the Mediterranean alone.

Yet I was once a beauty

All womanliness was me

Limpid gaze and full of grace

I symbolized sensuality.

Consort of the Lord of Death

All my beauty for his eyes

Hot in passion, cold in breath

Men’s envy was his prize.

One day to the Temple of Athene

I, my fateful sojourn made

And there met charming Poseidon

And thus sealed my fate.

No mate or husband did I seek

But a companion to share

My world so very dark and bleak

And show some love and care.

Just as passion cast its wondrous spell

And we were one with the Universe

Came Athene, her wrath a Death Knell

And hit me with her Curse.

My soft and silky tresses

Now turned to writhing serpents

My world now full of hisses

Oh! Too late her repentance.

I, now a monster with a deadly gaze

Yet all that is Woman for all Time

And never so terrible is my face

As hideous as her crime.

Glory Sasikala