Enrakami

i am no hydra. there is no poison-tipped spear, no angry torch to hold to my neck i may not raze your fields nor eat your livestock but i was born to destroy you. when i smile i want you to think not of wolves, but of girls pretty girls, with flirtatious red lips and teeth white as pearls not of monsters who lurk under grandmother's bed swallowing children for supper. i am no chimaera, no sphinx: no hero can vanquish me on winged pegasus i cannot breathe fire or deceive with words (it's all appearances, everyone knows that.) do not forget it was helen who launched a thousand ships, clytemnestra who slew agamemnon judith who beheaded holofe