Wilda Morris
Becoming Medusa
Why, when my hair grew out,
did you call me Medusa
instead of Rapunzel?
I let my long locks loose
hoping you’d climb
to my tower. You spurned me,
refused to look into my eyes.
The writhing around my head
was not snakes, not anything
meant to harm you.
It was not I who turned you to stone.
Had you looked at my mirrored
countenance, you would have seen
my eyes were soft as my tresses.
Were my blood to drip
on your cold heart, I swear
it would heal, not poison.
Wilda Morris, Workshop Chair for Poets & Patrons of Chicago, is widely published in print and on the Internet, recently appearing in After Hours, Whitefish Review, Cyclamens and Swords, Voices on the Wind, Rockford Review, and The Avocet. Her book, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant, was published by RWG Press. Wilda has led poetry workshops at the Green Lake Conference Center, and in schools and libraries. She is the author of Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant. Her blog at http://wildamorris.blogspot.com/ provides a monthly contest for other poets.
Becoming Medusa
Why, when my hair grew out,
did you call me Medusa
instead of Rapunzel?
I let my long locks loose
hoping you’d climb
to my tower. You spurned me,
refused to look into my eyes.
The writhing around my head
was not snakes, not anything
meant to harm you.
It was not I who turned you to stone.
Had you looked at my mirrored
countenance, you would have seen
my eyes were soft as my tresses.
Were my blood to drip
on your cold heart, I swear
it would heal, not poison.
Wilda Morris, Workshop Chair for Poets & Patrons of Chicago, is widely published in print and on the Internet, recently appearing in After Hours, Whitefish Review, Cyclamens and Swords, Voices on the Wind, Rockford Review, and The Avocet. Her book, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant, was published by RWG Press. Wilda has led poetry workshops at the Green Lake Conference Center, and in schools and libraries. She is the author of Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant. Her blog at http://wildamorris.blogspot.com/ provides a monthly contest for other poets.