Erin Henderson

Erin Henderson Poems

The Best Poem Of Erin Henderson

Gorgon-Rachel Wiley

Gorgon

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld
thinks himself modern Perseus
Damns us of soft shape, into a snake-haired
Gorgon, then beheads us.
High atop Mount Fashion Week, Mr Largerfeld Decrees
with a laugh in his throat and a shake of his head
That no one wants to see round women.

Television stations refused to play commercials
for a plus size lingerie lines
as the model has too much cleavage
to be deemed appropriate for TV.
Deems her Titan, expels her into the abyss.
This model, she is too much.
We are too much.
We should Embrace glossy magazines stacked pedestals
to the backs of our throats,
wrench to fit atop them
without threat of an airbrush gun to the head
should they wobble.

See beauty is supposed to fit between margins.
But We are too much.
We are not enough.
We are not people but punchlines.
Head shakes, tongue clicks,
such a shame, such a waste, such a pretty face.

You are too fat to fly, wings clip to
The sky belongs to Zeus
You have thunder thighs and not enough lightning
You are too much, you are not enough,
You are a distraction, you are an in-security risk
Every hissing hair on your head to defiant.
But the part of the story often lost,
is that Medusa was born so beautiful,
made ugly by another's demand.

Mr. Lagerfeld, is it so much easier to make us monsters
Than to simply make us dresses.
But if you promise to lower your sword
and look at me… really look at me
I promise…. I won't turn you into stone.

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