Preferences of my 7th decade

 - a response poem to Patricia Smiths poem "Medusa" 

Too Much Drama, 

all those hormones

the burning and bravado

followed by anxiety and self-doubt.

I don't miss them,

not even a little

The old gods have feet of clay

and petty, vengeful hearts.

Explosions of thunder,

stabs of lightning

seem relaxing by comparison.

I'd take a solitary sunrise

seen through thistle and milkweed in the meadow

or a humming bird busy in the red bee balm

a wood dove on the roof-line....

 -- Mad Mar Mistryel Walker, July 5, 2026 at a "Sunday Writes" session led by Faith Vicinanza at VSG Gallery.

I also have an old Medusa poem:

 Love and Mirrors 

 When courting Medusa, don't call her by that name. Let her have her delusions as she allows you yours.

Let her have her memories of a time when soft hair cascaded down her back and men reached to touch her cheek.

When you come to take her, lose the mirrored glasses, close your eyes tightly lest she see the snakes reflected, transmogrify to marble, cold statuary in your garden of love.

And who would be Medusa then? Or was it you all along?

-- Mar Mar Mistryel Walker (p22 - from  my first poetry chapbook Inverse Origami - the art of unfolding (Puzzled Dragon Press, 1998)