This poem was written for the Budding Poets Competition 2023-2024. The theme was “heritage”. Students wrote poems about festivals, traditions, customs, cuisines and myths. Some students even wrote about western heritage as a way to challenge themselves.

A Gorgon’s Tale

Once there was a girl,

Envied by all,

Whose beauty was prized

And lured men to fall.

And though she neglected

That her charms were divine.

The goddesses envied,

Feeling outshined

Instead, she swore an oath

To never marry

And to worship Athena

Which angered men dearly.

One day, by the seaside,

Medusa passed by,

Her hair, her face,

Caught Poseidon’s eye.

Poseidon approached,

As if in a trance,

He offered his hand,

But she declined the dance.

Medusa reached a temple

And prayed for guidance.

But Athena wasn’t here

So Poseidon chose violence.

When Athena heard the news,

That the girl caused her ire,

She ordained the victim’s fate:

A curse none would desire.

And when she saw her uncle

Her eyes full of hatred.

“Were you not a Greek God,

Your fate would have been sacred.”

She punished the victim

Her beauty for the take -

Her luscious gold locks

Became thousands of snakes.

Permanently changing

The maiden once fair.

Forever transformed,

A living nightmare.

Medusa cried tears

From her petrifying eyes.

She was now a monster

Until she dies.

She returned to the village

In which she called home,

But everyone she waved to

Turned into stone.

And so it began:

A gorgon’s life.

Hunted by many,

Her throat on a knife

Medusa fled the village,

Steering mankind out of rear.

Becoming madder, insane,

And the monster people feared.

Poem: A Gorgon’s Tale