The Octopi Jars
by Michael R. Burch

Long-vacant eyes
now lodged in clear glass,
a-swim with pale arms
as delicate as angels'...

you are beyond all hope
of salvage now...
and yet I would pause,
no fear!,
to once touch
your arcane beaks...

I, more alien than you
to this imprismed world,
notice, most of all,
the scratches on the inside surfaces
of your hermetic cells...

and I remember documentaries
of albino Houdinis
slipping like wraiths
over the walls of shipboard aquariums,
slipping down decks'
brine-lubricated planks,
spilling jubilantly into the dark sea,
parachuting through clouds of pallid ammonia...

and I know now in life you were unlike me:
your imprisonment was never voluntary.

Originally published by Triplopia and The Poetic Musings of Sam Hudson. Keywords/Tags: Octopus, Octopi, Medusa, Sea Angel, Angel, Angels, Nature, Sea, Ocean, Aquarium, Aliens, Imprisonment, Prison, Ship, Ships, Shipwreck

We treat women who lie with our husbands like an army of Medusa's;
we blame the wrong person out of jealousy, envy, and heartbreak

It's not their fault they fell for the same lie as us
It's not their fault they are insecure or ignorant to the truth
It's not their fault our lovers didn't say no, that they couldn't resist and respect us

It's our fault for cursing the mistress
Damning her to turn everyone who looks her in the eyes into stone
Perpetually frozen in looks of horror and disgust
For something she didn't mean to do
For giving into desire

We are all Athena's
The ones who act on envy and rage
The ones who think we know it all
When all we know is the way to barbwire a heart

In the end, we are the ones to blame
For hurting someone already heartbroken
Penetrated by the same blade that stabbed us in the back
Only they were stabbed directly in the heart, the gut and the mind
They were forced to feel undeserved guilt and humiliation
For the faults of our own lovers

Don't blame the victims
Blame the cause
Blame the liars and the cheats
They are the real Medusa's in disguise; giving more to the temptations of beauty and desire rather than to the temples of love and respect

She carried his head low to the ground
A much more quiet triumph than he would have performed
If given the chance
For she is not a hero stroking her pride
Slaying beasts left and right to feed some bloated ego
She is only a naked woman
Fighting against the hate of the world
But to their eyes she will only ever be a monster

I can't lie. I can't pretend.
I'm not ready to dive
into the fire again.
After all the heartbreak
The world has shown
I'd rather have medusa
Turn my heart to stone.

A beautiful victim
of poisonous greed,
hurt, *****, abused
but was known to be
a monstrous villain.