day 20 of MyNaPoWriMo (write a poem a day!)

Electra coins a phrase

At first she thought she should be in the children’s
picture dictionary under “daddy’s girl” 

but couldn’t make it fit without a lengthy 
history of her family troubles; and she was tired

of the cable channels rehashing the war 
twenty-four hours a day. She thought about modeling,

being the face of a “woman scorned,” but remembered 
Medea had her beat and Medusa had the most 

impact so she settled for “wearing one’s heart 
on one’s own sleeve” because really she couldn’t bear

the humiliation of it all anymore – 
better to be known as a she-crab, all exoskeleton,

than to live silently, forgetting her un-avenged father
and letting her mother have all of the fun.

2 thoughts on “day 20 of MyNaPoWriMo (write a poem a day!)”

1. 

   Angie Powers

   November 20, 2011 at 1:30 pm

   Right on! Captures so much!

   Melanie
2. 

   Jen Dracos-Tice

   November 22, 2011 at 6:10 pm

   wow. i love this and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. “better to be known as a she-crab, all exoskeleton,/than to live silently” speaks volumes. the lines about Medea and Medusa were darkly funny. there’s so much about surfaces in here…the she-crab, the heart on the sleeve, modeling, and being the face of. . . really a very sad poem to me

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