to medusa
I wonder if you ever thought,
As you lay violated on Athena’s doorstep,
That you would become an unwitting icon
Of unabashed female strength and power.
If you ever imagined a world
Where beings bearing a feminine identity
Could fight for her rights to beat back
Against the supposéd hero defining her.
If you ever gloried in your ability
To turn lustful flesh into rock, defying him
Who sees you as a challenge to overpower
And nothing else, not heeding your hate.
I wonder if you ever mourned
Your snakeskin sisters who used goddess
Given gifts to take away Choice, that
Elusive thing, away from the less fortunate.
But I know one thing-
The patriarchal world is ever-present
But it is not so powerful that we cannot
Retake and reshape it into one where the
Law is set, not in their stone, but in ours.