Carole Satyamurti
Loving Medusa
Knowing the score,
I’ve pitched my tent here
among the litter of stone limbs
and torsos, the odd equestrian.
But instead of slaughter this time,
let’s try something less predictable:
fate losing the plot to match me
with the loneliest creature in the book.
What could be more desolate than this:
all your lovers petrified,
lips first, then finger-tips, bloodless;
eyes last, scaled with silica. Recurring silence.
Is it seeing warm flesh, or is it being seen
that can’t be borne? Either, perhaps,
drives you to make these suitors share
your own deep stone-coldness.
Knowing what always happens,
how stasis becomes intolerable,
you’re waiting for me to use my sword.
But I’ve learned that not to act is action
so I’m holding you in my regard, still,
shield cloudy sometimes, sometimes clear.
And I sing. After many hours the snakes
grow nerveless. I draw a little nearer.
It’s your nature to silence the babble of love;
it’s mine to love where love’s impossible.
Don’t think I have a different story
coiled up in my head. We must improvise.
Page(s) 42
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