Women Poetry: Dr. Chryssa Velissariou, Greece

Exclusive: Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy
Dr. Chryssa Velissariou

MEDUSA'S HEAD 

I fake to believe, whatever I wish, 
Whatever suits me emotionally. 
Anything that removes depression.  
I live in my virtual world. 
That's where you exist for me, 
You look at me every morning when I wake up, 
You say good night to me when I go to sleep. 
I make up imaginary causes, justifying your incomprehensible physical absence. 
The Truth, when I look her in the eye, petrifies me like ancient Medusa did. 
She's got tails and snakeheads like her. 
She smiles at me terrifyingly, causing me mental collapse. 
I force myself to look at her hedonistically, as I’m sticking a knife in my heart. 
As she’s reflecting the past on her black gaze, not letting me forget 
that love has always been a traitor to me. 
That I'm so na├пve that the passion has taught me no lessons ever. 
I don't wish to know, I don't wish to remember, I’m just suffering. 
Maybe that's why you’ve forgotten me so quickly. 
Maybe you are also facing Medusa's head. 
Maybe you also have been turned into stone 
At least that's what I can bear to imagine. 
***
 

THE MEDUSA 
 
The old man, with wrinkles like fish scales, grabbed my hand, 
glared at me and smiled sardonically ... 

His white long hair and beard waved in the wind.  

"You have the smile of the snake's mother" he told me,  
"Bland but also a trap; if I had youth and urge, 
you'd lie down on the sand with me for a night ... "  

His eyes, greedy, investigated my bosom and flanks.  

I had a tendency to run, but my legs were trembling, bolted to earth,  
and my heart was beating, like ╬▒ small deer’s heart after the hunt.  
I saw that he was reading me ...  

He pulled his tongue and licked his lips, 
caressing lewdly my thighs with his free hand.  

"You're wet as a deep dark lake," he said,  
"and your body a rough sea, your hands and your feet have been doubled
They stick their suckers around his body and he suffocates!
He is about to escape away ...”

“He can Not withstand Medusas ...”
***

Dr. Chryssa Velissariou, a published poet and physicist, is the Greece Beat Poet Laureate Lifetime, honored by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc.  A co-owner of "Edu-Europe" enterprise on non-formal education, she is the recipient of Innovation and Excellence in Education National Greek Award-2011. During 2020-21, a Technical Manager and featured poet in the International Beat Poetry and the Intl NBPF GODDESS Festivals, Dr. Chryssa Velissariou’s poems have also been featured in 100TCP Europe and Africa, Poets Aloud Ghana, Terpulau Borneo, Amaravati Poetic Prism, Corroboree and Independence Airport, Bronx Book Fair event, “From the Ancestors: Poems and Prayers for Future Generations” and other American Anthologies.

2 comments :

  1. Thank you , I feel honored!Please, consider the interpretation of Medusa's myth in my student's prized poetic short film some years ago. The film is in greek but there are subtitles in English https://youtu.be/W3cNMHzZBL8

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    Replies
    1. Good morning. I've enjoyed your poetry! I'm curious to know how you feel about Johnny Depp's inclusion as a beat poet laureate. Many survivors are very upset by this. He is a violent addict and was declared an abuser in the UK. Tremendous evidence has been released that proves this, despite his partial defamation win in the US, which is under appeal. It's just beyond understanding why Debbie Tosun Kilday would honor him.
      Thank you. ЁЯТЬ

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