Medusa Meditations
mh   4/6/98

			1.)
No one felt sorry for Medusa;
   one look at the stoned swirly serpents
      and all sympathy subsided.
Athena  (whose sight also hardened men)
   had transformed her into a Gorgon you see;
      not for evils done but out of jealousy.

The Three Gray Sisters knew beauty
reflects in the beholder's eye,
which is why they allowed Perseus to slay
Medusa, not because she was reportedly
repulsive but so they could regain their eye
   and judge for themselves.

         Beauty is only skin deep,
      just ask the casualties of the Trojan War
   who fell to stolen impressions of swords and souls. 
Ask them. They are the ones strewn in unrecognizable bloody heaps.


			2.)
"I don't believe in tanning beds," I tell her.
"I don't believe in poetry," she tells me.

How would Medusa be served in a tanning bed?
   Would her snakes turn fashionably brown?
When she lived she surely suffered from low self-esteem; 
   could a little makeup and plastic surgery lift her soul?
   (The cosmetics could cover any stone turning features.)
Would the Eye sense her differently, accept her now?
Probably, for the eye is even greedier than the holder.

Which is more beautiful: the reality of the caterpillar
or the anticipation of the cocoon?