Medusa's Daughter

Frieda Hughes, Medusa Sculpture

Medusa's Daughter
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“The song from the
cathedral of her mouth”
—Frieda Hughes,
“Medusa,” Waxworks
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She is the daughter—
Whose mother has rooted
In the very flesh of her scalp

Her Ariel voice gives me—
Goosebumps just like her
Mother’s wild poetry
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She makes my senses—
Spin & I stand alone nude
Like Ted before Sylvia

Her Medusa head of—
Writhing snakes are the
Tongues of a Planchette
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I stuff wax in my ears—
To keep from being had
And seduced by Sirens

But around her even—
These deaf ears can’t stop
The Voices of the Vipers
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They speak of Aeschylus—
The Tragedy that was Troy
The Story of Paris & Helen

Ted and Sylvia arguing—
Like Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra back home
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Frieda was their Electra—
Nicholas was their Orestes
And Assia was Cassandra

How can I look away—
When the Ouija Board speaks
With Ariel’s Voice again?