[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.]
Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Short_beaked_Echidna.jpg
indomitable
indomitable Echidna lives in the deepest caves of Earth
her home impregnable because fear is a fine guardian
even the storytellers can’t agree on her parentage
like a disownedchild she escapes from them and descends
to her own realm Echidna was keen on dogs among her
children is Orthus with a reputation as bloodthirsty but
who trusts the tellers I have heard that Orthus lays
his head on the lap of Echidna when he is hungry or in need
of affection even those who frighten us might have
streaks of kindness going one better than Orthus
Echidna gave birth to Cerberus a watchdog they say
with fifty heads a necessary feature when guarding
the door to the underworld Echidna’s domain Cerberus
has a huge head all the better to scare you with
when he opens his mouth wide his teeth are visible rows
of them like a shark continuing the theme of multiple
heads Hydra emerges with as many mouths and necks
as a watery delta leading to the sea deathless Echidna
has all the time in the world to bear her children and to
oversee the children of her children Hydra gave birth
to Chimaera three-headed a fire-tongued raging inferno
rampant on the three fronts of her three heads a lion
a goat and a serpentine dragon there is no stopping
this family after Pegasus claimed to kill Hydra she gave
birth to Sphinx capable of turning human minds in circles
and Sphinx’s sibling he lion of Nemea gold-furred with
claws the size of a human head terrifying and unbeatable
in battle I have heard Echidna called macabre and
ferocious but for us Echidna is a protectrix she holds
the old world in her mind and makes the new ones afraid
Meet Mago Contributor, Susan Hawthorne – Return to Mago E*Magazine
Mother of All Monsters? hmm haven;t we already invoked them?
love this photo!