Thursday Short Poem: Lummis' "Medusa Depressed"

I found this Suzanne Lummis piece in an English paper (Guardian or Observer) a few Sundays back, and it, no pun intended, took my breath away.  I'm an instant fan of her work, and she reminds me more than a little bit of Anne Sexton.

It's a great twist on an old myth, loaded with feminist food-for-thought.

Medusa Depressed

Tell me about it, for me
Every day’s a bad hair day.
And no stylist in town’ll
Give me the latest non-
peroxide tint – they make
excuses, “Uh, sorry,
Ms. Medusa, we’re all
Booked up – no way.”
Then people blame me
For my looks – jerks!
And shampoo? Yeah, right.
When soap gets in their eyes
Try to pull a comb through these –
Vipers you know, all of them
Pissed off at each other and
The world. So, sure, they bite.
Plus: Girlfriend, you think
You’ve got it rough finding
Men who aren’t just mush?
All mine are rock!
So could I chip through
The granite and pull the men
Back out? Guess not.
All I want’s a guy
Who’d putter around out back,
Fix things, come in handy.
And I’m still a babe – get past
My head, I’m hot.
I’m snake-bite candy.
In my dreams I let down, down,
My silky teen-queen locks
And some cute prince climbs up.
If he asked, I’d tell him, Oh,
Those sculptures all along the walk?
    Tributes to men who loved me
At first sight. That dangerous
Emotion, like crystal Meth. Whoosh,
     Dude,
I took their breath.

Comments

[Katherine]

A propos of absolutely nothing - the paper is the Guardian during the week (Mon to Sat) and the Observer on Sunday.

[Hugo]

Right, Katherine -- I meant the Observer or the Independent. I suspect it was the Independent, now that I think about it!

[Victoria Marinelli]

Hello again...

Having just read this (and despite the fact that I have since reconsidered my Medusa tattoo idea for purely dermatalogic reasons), I thought you might be interested in this blog entry: Rationale for a Medusa tattoo (courtesy of quotations from Robert S. McElvaine's Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History).

If you haven't read the McElvaine book, I highly recommend it. :)