This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Louisiana Tech chapter.
Medusa’s snakes kiss my neck
and tell me there’s nothing unfeminine
about dirt. when you run through
the forest and it follows you home
matted into your hair, tangles and split
ends justify the means. stained, unclean,
seedy underbelly, what we crawled through
just to stand here and defend the mess
of splinters pussing and infected
from the dirt under my fingernails.
do you know how many graves I dug
for myself and then clawed back out
of? monsters aren’t made in spite of men
but to hide from them, under beds
in the closets. long legs, dark eyes, sharp nails
some of the deadliest snakes have no fangs
to show for it. look at my mess. the dirt
under my fingernails. I am stained, unclean,
the monster Athena made on purpose.