Circe
Have you ever seen a man, made into a beast? Have you ever watched men change into something else— Entirely at Desire’s goad, Did you know any woman Can transform a man |
Heroes who’ve stumbled upon me Ask me for my wisdom. I say Children without fathers become the worse for it. Men could learn to keep their shape In my presence If they’re careful. |
I’ve seen even thinking men grow tusks.
Andromeda
I tried to spot the monster. The sun’s light off the waves, All I felt was a gale, The ropes around my wrists, And my heart pounding Wondering if I should feel Despair, do I give myself over, Must I accept a woman’s lot? |
He came to me from the sky his golden hair and shining eyes, godling or hallucination—he spoke, but did I imagine him cutting through my terror and releasing me? when I realized I was not yet free; relief while panic surged, the look of His eyes said you owe me; Yet this debt I am unwilling to pay. |
Would he even see me if I saved myself?
Lot's Wife
I had not imagined leaving our home Like thieves. This place, The hearth I tended, The place I raised our daughters, To you means nothing, as little as the girls themselves, the mad gleaming in your eye as you give them to the horde outside? And in some stranger’s place, Offered up your flesh and blood To be devoured by a crowd, Forgive me if I don’t leap to obey Your every word and curse |
Where our daughters learned to lie the house you built, You say it will be destroyed tonight? This garden and the love I’ve spent our life we built here, it will disappear like firelight on daggers, or something I cannot see, what madness is this Betray your children, rant about god to escape judgment, you’d forsake us Abandon us without a second thought. With each step: I wonder why I follow you, Tears streaming, two pillars of salt. |
And you begrudge me one last look before I go.