Altered Snakes

My 2024 SFPA Pushcart Nominated Poem “Medusa With Cancer”

I had vicious black snakes for hair. I lost my snakes. My snakes grew back, though not as plentiful and while they still catch brushes, if one dares get within their event horizon,(avoided!), or attack the lovely hands trying to run through the coils, I’ll never be that Medusa again. I am different since cancer. Nearly dying made me emerge as a poet. I grieve the snakes in these poem and celebrate and honor my new second, better life- with altered snakes/altered state in this speculative poem.

“Medusa With Cancer” First published Star*Line 47.3 Summer 2024.