Medusa

they call you monster
gorgon
murderess
slayer of heroes

but I remember
fair-cheeked Medusa
how you shone
before the fall

how you sparkled
before the goddess' wrath
deformed your pale thighs
and your dark, beguiling eyes

you were terrifying
in your beauty perhaps
in your soft-spoken charms
but no monster

even the mighty sea god
was helpless before you
desecrating Athena's temple
in his eagerness to hold you
to make you his own

priestess of Athena
how you begged your mistress' mercy
how you ran in shame
when she showed herself unmerciful

your only crime was love
and as punishment
you were made too hideous
for that chaste union

your rosy breasts
turned black and dry
your silky tresses
rose like snakes
infecting your mind
with their demon talk
your eyes turned dark as night
and the heroes that pursued you
that hunted you for glory
dropped like flies before your raging fire

but one cannot deny one's Fate

the villain Perseus
aided by the base and vengeful gods
cut off your lovely head
and now your tragic form lies cold as stone
a posthumous tribute to your victims

Poseidon's child still sleeping in your swollen belly
never to be born

Copyright, Walter Wykes 2009

Circe

your mansion rises
in the middle of a clearing
a dense wood, prowled by lions and wolves
the drugged and deadly victims of your magic

tales of your dark temper
are legendary

by magical arts
you reduce scorned suitors to cattle
or pigs
whichever suits your fancy

you leave them nothing
not even their manhood

still, I am drawn
like a wild beast
like all the others before me
to feast upon your witch's smile

red wine drips from your moist lips
splashes on a bare breast

like Odysseus
I suspect treachery from the outset
but I am only a man

even as I tear at your clothing
I keep one eye on the door
and a hand on my sword

Copyright Walter Wykes, 2009

Persephone

your laughter echoes still
in that bright field where you played
so carefree, a little goddess
arms white as milk
gathering flowers with your playmates
when the earth shook
and through the crumbling ground
your monstrous lover burst
an uninvited guest
snatching you away
plucking your innocence
as you had plucked flowers
only moments before

how you must have cried out
must have begged for your release

when your mother learned of the abduction
her grief stopped the earth, the moon, the stars in their tracks
the world became eternal winter
there was no consolation, no solace
no moving on

what an unexpected miracle when you returned to us
a gift from the gods

but you are not the same
no longer that bright child
a handful of seeds has sealed your fate
and though all things flourish in your presence
your laughter is colored by that other place, that dark lover
and in your eyes cold winter reigns

copyright Walter Wykes, 2009

Eurydice

this isn't real
you can't be here
impossible
this is only memory
a cheap trick of my failing mind
I can't touch you
you're nothing but a ghost
a fabrication
a doppelgänger
fashioned out of mist to torment me
if I reach out
you will disappear
if I turn around
you will vanish
I know this to be true
but your body calls to me
your skin beckons
your eyes reach out
like a light in the fog
signaling across the years
the memories flood back
a rush of hopes dreams fears
whispers and caresses
your young body trembles
under a thin summery dress
and I reach for you
I feel you solid and alive
beneath my touch
then you shudder
and melt on my fingers
like a chocolate bar

Copyright Walter Wykes, 2009