
MEDUSA
ALICIA ELKORT
Medusa shakes her rage her snake-
eyes & hair I’d love to touch my
curls hers touching this gaze my eyes
of disruption she was raped you say
tell it to the mountain I say tell it
to the sky tell it to every man the sins
of every man come to vanquish her
name & step on her head they can’t look
in her eyes that gaze they turn to stone
how we turn to stone every time a person
asks what was she wearing was that vodka
she was drinking who does she think she is
to turn so much beauty & not owned by a man?
Channa’s sisters call her a liar they called my
beautiful friend a wicked liar to ruin the family
name but her father raped her & sisters
abandoned her on an island named Grief
with this gift to look into a stranger’s eyes
& know their own rage will turn them to
stone no warning –how she’d love to have tea
add honey & friends & lemon a few cookies but
these truthful eyes what does it look like
Medusa who has seen the truth & lived with grit
while the world re-tells her story the salient
parts all wrong it’s not your story at all what
has she seen what evil turned her heart turned
the blood on our lips the crush of our breath
we turn & turn to stone like Lot’s wife
who wasn’t even given her own name how
dare she turn for her daughters [& who is killing
or raping them] what vengeful god is this
not my god to punish a person for another’s
actions what was she wearing again?
Sandra Bland shouldn’t have been so
angry & disrespectful to the man standing
on her head demanding fealty commanding
what she’s lost in this world is lost to us
Medusa was raped sounds like the result
of her own actions i.e. Medusa was walking
down the street & stopped for a coffee
how about Poseidon raped Medusa
in her mother’s home her own sacred
temple did you catch that?
Poseidon raped beauty beauty belongs
to the voyeur her mother casts her out
(how like Channa) men came to kill
to claim her rage for who likes a nasty
woman who would vote for a nasty
woman who cares what happens to a …
you can grab ‘em by the pussy all day long
how I long for Medusa’s snakes her skin
her arms & if I looked into her eyes I’d see
rain & roses faun & lemur sweet river
mists & skies azuring the night if I could
tell her one thing it’d be I am grateful
for my truth her stare my snakes her eyes
my hair her gloriously healing rage.
ALICIA ELKORT's poetry has been published in AGNI, Arsenic Lobster, Black Lawrence Press, Georgia Review, Heron Tree, The Hunger Journal, Jet Fuel Review, Menacing Hedge, Rogue Agent, Stirring: A Literary Collection, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, as well as many others. Her poems have been nominated for the Orisons Anthology (2016), the Pushcart (2017), and A Best of the Net (2018). Alicia reads for Tinderbox Poetry Journal, mostly with a cup of strong black tea in hand.