Harpy

by Michael Estabrook

Harpeia harpazein

Our name means that which snatches we are
the snatchers of the ancient world
particularly food snatchers and defilers
getting our first notoriety by stealing food
from poor hapless Phineas the Prophet nearly starving
the poor bastard to death.
(We were sent by ever-envious Zeus what choice
did we have seriously?)

We are great eagle-like birds
but with a woman’s head and breasts described first
as beautiful bewitching siren-like creatures
(Men are suckers for breasts any breasts whatsoever)
but later as ugly bird-women brutes
placed by Dante himself in his Inferno
in the branches of trees in the Wood of Self-murderers
forever tormenting the souls of the suicide sinners:
They have wide wings, and human necks and visages,
clawed feet, and huge feathered bellies,
they make lament above on the strange trees…
in which the suicides themselves have been entombed
punishment for having destroyed their physical bodies.

Even though they have been named for us
we are not the elusive Harpy Eagles in the rainforests
of today as you can yourself see hereunder
(They are after all mere birds not monsters such as we)

Michael Estabrook has been publishing his poetry in the small press since the 1980s. He has published over 20 collections, a recent one being The Poet’s Curse, A Miscellany (The Poetry Box, 2019).