My Name is Medea
Winner of the 1996 New Spirit Press Chapbook Competition
My Name is Medea
Understand this:
the strength
by which a woman kills
her own brother, betrays
her own father, and confronts
monsters for your sake
is the same strength
which she will use to kill
the new bride
you abandon her for.
The passion
which drives her to leave behind
her own homeland
to be with you,
even as an exile among strangers,
is the same passion
which will drive her
to kill her own children
because they are yours as well.
Understand this:
Jason was unequal
to such strength,
such passion--
his only depth was in ambition,
and when he failed Medea
she did not fail herself.
And you, my love,
what lies in your heart?
What depths, what strengths,
what passions?
Understand this:
the strength
by which a woman kills
her own brother, betrays
her own father, and confronts
monsters for your sake
is the same strength
which she will use to kill
the new bride
you abandon her for.
The passion
which drives her to leave behind
her own homeland
to be with you,
even as an exile among strangers,
is the same passion
which will drive her
to kill her own children
because they are yours as well.
Understand this:
Jason was unequal
to such strength,
such passion--
his only depth was in ambition,
and when he failed Medea
she did not fail herself.
And you, my love,
what lies in your heart?
What depths, what strengths,
what passions?