Dear James,
         On the subject of the Worm e-magazine, didn't this appear in a
previous Worm issue?
 I was a guest editor and it got my vote anyway.
 Kind regards,
 grasshopper

----- Original Message -----
To: <[log in to unmask]>
: New sub: Medea And The Media

There was a revival of the Euripides a while back and it drew this response
from me. The thinking is how Greek tragedy fits into our own worlds.
Re-eading the original play (in translation) I found Euripidies handled his
theme with a terrific sensitivity the belittles the media pack that hound
news and make them sensational. So this is where the poem is coming from.

MEDEA AND THE MEDIA

So I killed the kids -
this is what you want to hear, isn't it?

I killed them after Jason left me and our boys
for that bitch Glauce, King Creon's daughter.

I'm told for love, but, come on, pull the other one,
we're all adults here, let's remember I'm not a Greek
and Corinth aspires to an Athenian sense of order.

You don't want that detail though. Do you?
Explanation is not vbald enough tragedy
for a sound bite -
all you want is a picture of me
bathed in the blood of my sons
as I wail and hold their bodies in my arms.

You are all quick to bray like a Greek chorus
in neat, pat cliche.
At least they were there to tell the truth,
be yiour interior conscience to argue with
and to help the story along.

They weren't false friends either
and didn't invade your personal space
with their masks still on.

Remember this though -
and you can check what Euripides says,
murdering my lovely sons
was not the first thing to enter my head.
Whatever you think it's not full of air -
and you weren't there.

What? You don't understand,
either what I say or why I did it by my own hand?

That's it. Interview's over.
Thanks for coming to the home of Aegeus, son of Pandion.


bw
James