PETRIFICATION

By Maya Masoliver

If Athena had not done it, 

Would the snakes have found her still? 

Or was it she, tired of wedded eyes, 

Crawling up her thighs 

To feast on the seeded flesh 

Of apple cheeks? 

Did she wait for the years to turn the gaze? 

Or did she hiss away their hunger, 

Gouge herself of pigtailed smiles, 

Plaited pythons and cobras in her curls? 

Did she turn herself to that serpent-slip crescent, 

Drunk on its golden pools, 

Did she ask the sun to rise and by its fire 

Mould man to clay. 

Did the moon hollow her eyes to craters, 

Instructed: 

Bring the stardust lost in men 

To rest upon the skin's surface. 

At petrification does she let the rain ravish? 

Or does she hoard them in hidden corners, 

Does she tip those stony statues,  

And return their form to dust. 

#darkpoetsclub