Poem of the Day: “To Tell Medusa No...” by Rie Sheridan Rose

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “To Tell Medusa No...” by Rie Sheridan Rose.  A brief biography of Ms. Rose may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2015/10/poem-of-day-night-fishing-by-rie.html.

To Tell Medusa No...

Rie Sheridan Rose

If I were looking for a quick release

from the game of life,

I would tell the Gorgon to her face

and spend eternity forever poised

and perfect...

never aging, never dying...at least in the messy sense.

But I am more coward than

courageous,

and foolish enough to

dream tomorrow better...

so no.

Not in person, then.

Perhaps I could send a note --

entrusted to one I despise,

and kill two birds with one...stone...

as it were.

But I would like be named

for the crime,

and prison is so confining...

so no.

Does Medusa have a telephone,

out there on her lonely rock?

Surrounded by the indifferent sea

and lots of statuesque fish?

Her bills would be outrageous --

and I doubt she'd accept collect...

so no.

An email, routed through the

safety of the Internet?

But who could guess her username...

Olsnakehead3 is probably not a safe bet...

so no.

I suppose I must shout my defiance

to the wind.

"No! No! A million times, no!"

And hope one breath of insolence

is carried to her lonely ear.

Poet's Notes:  I am quite fond of this poem. It was originally written to a prompt on the Writer's Cafe website. I no longer remember exactly what the requirement was, but it turned out to be a rather poignant consideration of how lonely it must be to be a gorgon and how difficult it would be to contact one. That's the flippant answer, but I do think that it looks at how difficult person-to-person contact can sometimes be.

Editor’s Note:  The poet employs an interesting conceit here and uses repetition well.  The mood created is interesting, at once hopeful and defeated.  “To Tell Medusa No...” first appeared on the Writer's Cafe website and also appears in Rose’s chapbook, Take Out from the Writer's Café.