He was just another hellenistic hero, born blessed, who sought greater horizons than huts under a holy mountain. Yet journeying out, he found his strength unmatched by any enemy, and after every local evil was beaten into submission the boy became bored. He walked the world sulking until late adolescence. Restless. Then, upon entering a cave to pout in indifference, he beheld a woman among statues; orange eyed and beautiful, who walked back into his outstretched arms and grasped his stony shoulders. She was warm. He could almost smile. Snakes kissed his face, and as he wrapped around her scaled torso, breathing in the blackened lavender strands of her cobras, pythons, and black mambas, Medusa’s new lover wondered at how he was finally content to be so still.

Coleman Bomar is a writer who currently resides in the mountains of East Tennessee. His works have been featured by and/or are forthcoming in 365 Tomorrows, Bewildering Stories, Altered Reality, Impressions Literary Magazine, The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Heartland Review, Danse Macabre, Anti-Heroin Chic, Showbear Family Circus Liberal Arts Magazine, Rats Ass Review, Nine Muses Poetry, Plum Tree Tavern, Prometheus Dreaming, SOFTBLOW, Poets' Choice Zine, Coughsyrup Magazine, Isacoustic, Ethel Zine, Beyond Words, Terror House Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, and Eunoia Review.

Image: Full Face of Cobra, John Ruskin, 1871