ECHIDNA
Levi Stallings

they kill my children and call me the monster
me—mother of monsters—and to think
we were here eons before they came with their
roads and carriages
and rules and legends
it’s the legends that’ll kill you every time
but nevermind
I was beautiful once
and ate the raw flesh of all who dared oppose me
I had everything I could ever want
until I fell in love with a hundred-headed giant
they’ll tell you anything
out of a hundred mouths at once
and so I raised dragons from babies
that sucked blood from my breasts
I put them through school in Hades and
maybe I made some mistakes but I never
raised my voice
Hercules’s own mother abandoned him
and he never learned read or write
completing his labors
pretty much the same way you’d ask a
neighbor to help move a sofa
slaying lions and hydras resting peacefully in their caves
they call that heroism
they never attended the funerals
and every night I grieved a song that shattered
constellations into comets and
reformed them different so everybody could see
the real story of a three headed dog
the Sphinx and Medusa
and all my other lost children
I had so many children
how many mothers know what it’s like to
have twelve children murdered
by what they call heroes
and still they call you monster
I live in my own cave these days
waiting for a hero to come and slay me too
on the faded ink of a broken clay pot
that will never be in a museum
let’s face it
you’ve probably never even heard of me before now
history is written by heroes
who want everybody to remember
just how heroic they were
leaving behind blood and guts
and voices in the wild
hear my song

Levi Stallings is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker based in Northern Arizona.