Medusa
Claire Scott
If your mother devours you
mouth by mouthful
like Medusa
razor fangs, lolling tongue
a halo of hissing snakes
chomping arms and legs
the most accessible
then brain, heart, lungs
softly delicious
finally your soul
sweet ambrosia you
live inside her you
peer through the
holes of her eyes you
stare at a wasted world
blood smeared
and blood sated
in the end you
see what she sees you
think her thoughts you
feel her feelings you
metabolized by Medusa
you a life stopped short
shocked, you turned to
stone you in the
terrible gaze of her eyes
no blood coursing in
you but hers
yours calcified
in dread you
in the end
no mirrored shield
no winged sandals
no sword to slice
her skin
your mother
your womb
your grave
you
mouth by mouthful
like Medusa
razor fangs, lolling tongue
a halo of hissing snakes
chomping arms and legs
the most accessible
then brain, heart, lungs
softly delicious
finally your soul
sweet ambrosia you
live inside her you
peer through the
holes of her eyes you
stare at a wasted world
blood smeared
and blood sated
in the end you
see what she sees you
think her thoughts you
feel her feelings you
metabolized by Medusa
you a life stopped short
shocked, you turned to
stone you in the
terrible gaze of her eyes
no blood coursing in
you but hers
yours calcified
in dread you
in the end
no mirrored shield
no winged sandals
no sword to slice
her skin
your mother
your womb
your grave
you
Listen to Claire read the poem here:
Working notes
I have always loved the Medusa myth, the shadow rage of women. While my mother was certainly no Medusa, she was ravenous and invasive. As an adult it has taken some time to internally separate what is my mother, what is a reaction to my mother, and what is me.
About the author
Claire Scott is an award winning poet who has published in a number of literary magazines. She was nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize. Claire is a winner of the Arizona State Poetry Society 2013 Annual Poetry Contest. She has published or will be published in Garbanzo, Trivia, Poetry Quarterly, Stepping Stones, Epiphany, Organs of Vision and Speech, Red Savina Review, Writers Tribe Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Common Threads, First Day and Sanskrit, among others. Her forthcoming first collection of poems, Waiting to be Called, will be published by IF SF Press in late 2014. Claire is a Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Berkeley, CA.