Postcard from an Obscure Island

My dear, the myths are slightly different here.

You’ll think you recognise Medusa’s snarl

In the mosaic overleaf. It is in fact Majousa,

Local parallel of the better known snakes-for-hair.

The guidebook says that she,

Unlike the traditional Greek Gorgon,

Was formed inside her father’s femur

Where, marrow-warm, she swung in the pendulum

Of his restless walks for nine long months.

Then, at pained shrieks from him that bore her,

She snapped free from this uncanny loin leg,

(Less a uterus, more an egg) and all beheld a babe

With snakes for hair.

The manner of her birth had left its mark,

As those who look upon her turn to bone,

Ossified to a living ache, and bound

To starve with the hushed poise of a statue.

These victims line her boudoir

Where she pouts in consternation

How to fix this hair without a mirror

And how to keep it still?

William Kraemer © 2013