A Monster Mere

By Sunavya Kaur Pahwa

I gazed at the stone wall as I remembered that day, 

A horrible memory, too fresh to be sent away... 

A new start, too much to handle, 

A day, easily to be described as a misleading scandal... 

Lifting my hand to my head, I try to touch what used to be hair, 

All to hear a few hisses, which caused a punishment, a solitaire... 

Is this it? Is this my destiny? Is this what I am meant to be? 

Am I woman to be scared of? Am I even a woman? Am I a monster? For someone to flee?

Am I story to be narrated to kids? Am I a myth to scare kids and adults alike? 

A machine? A weapon to be used for the final strike?

Midas turned everything he touched to gold,

While I will turn everyone I see into a piece of stone, with power uncontrolled... 

'Medusa', a name instilling in everyone a fear, 

A sob forced its way out of my body as I thought to myself, "I am, a monster mere..."

Not only Poseidon, in my thoughts I curse, 

It is my own hero, my goddess, who gave to me this amerce... 

The one who I thought to be the kindest, the smartest, in everything the best, 

Turned out to be, for me, the cruellest, the harshest and the unblessed... 

Maybe my days of worshipping Athena were a waste, 

Because according to her, I have been a disgrace... 

Even today, my hatred for her, is as alive as the snakes for my hair, 

And now, I, a monster mere, seems to be in a state of heavy despair...

By Sunavya Kaur Pahwa