Yet another poem by Assunta Femia, A Sister Species of Crow, O.C.

oh, medea,
this is no circle of corinthian women
and these people are americans i have been
cast into.
this man is not jason
and these men are not argonauts.
everyone speaks english here
and when something is foreign they say
it's greek to me.
the great mother is greek to them
and our holy afroditi
has become a tacky las vegas showgirl.
i have no children to murder and no euripides
to lie or not to lie about my flight.
in this culture the sacred ones were hunted
for sport or from hatred
and with an alarming regularity
their blood was spilled in unholy rituals
unnatural barbarities perpetrated
by nazi sex kings
who did not know from the scent of lilacs.
the soiled earth.
the stained bed.
oh, medea,
this is no circle of corinthian women.
these people are americans.

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21 may 1983
--sister species of crow, o.c.