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“Untitled” By Seneca Gray
I am Circe, daughter of Perse and the Sun
who brightens the land where men wander.
I reside on an Aeaean island in a splendid palace surrounded by brush and woods,
far away from moronic mortals.
Three quirks of my nature are:
My superior pedigree has endowed me with
mystical abilities and extensive knowledge of enchant- ment.
I think all mortal men are pigs, literally.
And last, but certainly not least, I love my hair.
It is elegantly arranged in lovely braids.
Men fall helplessly to their knees when I appear.
They become so taken with my beauty
when they see it.
These three things together make me dangerous.
And I am pleased by that. Dangerous beings are feared;
Fear asserts Power; Power provides Control.
I enjoy being in control.
These brutes are usually lost and starved
of food and drink because they were not
intelligent enough to steer clear of my island’s crag. Or they simply did not supply Poseidon , God of Earthquakes,
with a satisfactory sacri ce. Poseidon, God of Earth- quakes,
often sends unworthy ships into my harbor
because he knows they will meet their
deserved fate at my hands. When mortal men
call out for my hospitality, I simply cannot resist
the way they gawk at my beauty, my lovely braids, with rapture. Their attention appears to be
that of an awed child. So I allow them
drugs that make them forget about leaving; forget who they are and where they are from. Completely under my control. I like it. When the imbeciles are mentally captured,
Never has one escaped or even resisted me. I fear the day Herme giant-killer’s prophecy comes true.
I have a routine when mortal fools come across my palace.
beautiful voice through the halls of my
beautiful palace as I wove cloth on my
beautiful loom. I had earlier captured a tremendous troop
of twenty strapping men all who turned into
twenty strapping pigs. Nothing unusual;
I do it all the time.
Then a shout from outside my gleaming doors
drifted to my ears. Another dumb mortal!
What a day! I practically danced over to the man,
and what a man he was! By far the most stunning mortal I ever had laid my eyes on. But this did not faze me,
for I was assured he, like all other mortal men, was a pig.
The beautiful man followed me to my silver-studded chairs
like the others. He ate my feast.
He drank my drug-laced wine.
I pulled out my wand, but at the moment I customarily turn the mortal pig into the swine he is inside,
he drew forth a glinting sword and charged at me
with all the speed that he could muster. I screamed.
I screamed in horror at how this mortal had not
fallen nder my spell and was now proceeding to
try and skewer me with his weapon.
Nearly passing out, I fell to the oor at his knees, barely missing the tip of his blade.
Crying, I asked him who he was, where he was from, who his parents were, for surely this was great Odys- seus, son of Laertes, King of Ithaca, who was fated to defy me.
I had to have this man, breed deep trust and love be- tween us.
Take him to my bed for sure, because he was
the most remarkable being I ever beheld.
Boy, he had me whipped.
into my halls to sit in my silver-studded chairs to dine and feast, gorge their stomachs
with my meat and wine. However,
I slyly lace their drinks with drugs -
I unsheathe my wand and turn them into what they really are - swine - and herd them into cages that line the walls of my halls.
2008/2009
Herme’s giant-killer
and god of the golden wand, once prophesied that a mortal man named Odysseus, son of Laertes, King of Ithaca, would one day defy my drugs.
That day I started
like any other, by singing songs- weaving my
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