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Book Analysis: Wound from the Mouth of a Wound: Medusa’s Curse as a Trans Allegory

An Analysis of the Book by torrin a. greathouse


Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, torrin a. greathouse’s debut full-length poetry collection, can be imagined as an ouroboros. Often associated with Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, the famous tail-devouring snake is used as a symbol for the eternal cycle of life and death. Even the book’s title, which is a line from the opening poem, explores the circular nature of pain. Entitled “Medusa with the Head of Perseus,” the poem is written in response to Luciano Garbati’s sculpture by the same name—which is featured on the front cover. This ekphrastic poem thus acts simultaneously as a retelling of the Greek myth of Medusa, who was cursed for the “crime” of having been raped by the Greek god Poseidon—and later, beheaded by the hero Perseus—as well as of the poet’s life. 


greathouse, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns interchangeably, uses the curse of Medusa as a trans allegory both in this poem and as a through line in her collection. According to certain accounts, Medusa’s curse renders her undesirable to men, who are turned to stone if they look into her eyes. Because of this, she is dehumanized and portrayed in literature as a villain. Despite having been subjected to abuse and curse, Medusa is only seen by society as a predator that needs to be slain. This story is echoed later in Wound from the Mouth of a Wound with the poem “On Using the Wo|men’s Bathroom.” In this piece, greathouse describes—side-by-side on the same page—what could happen if she, as a trans woman who does not see herself as “passing” as cisgender, were to enter the women’s bathroom versus the men’s bathroom. They end the poem with the line “I cannot conceive of a different ending / to a narrative ending in blood,” merging the two scenarios and alluding to Medusa’s beheading by Perseus, which led to Pegasus being born from her blood. By referencing this Greek myth multiple times throughout her book, greathouse is emphasizing how contemporary society often treats trans women the same way as the Ancient Greeks treated Medusa: by dehumanizing and villainizing the victim(s) of abuse. 


As such, “Medusa with the Head of Perseus” introduces many concepts and themes that reoccur throughout the book—including themes of violence, self-harm, abuse, crime and punishment, estrangement, disability, and medical transition. In the poem’s first stanza, greathousewrites: “But you already know the myth: rape / that made the body punishment for itself.” These lines are alluded to multiple times throughout the collection to justify the violence she, along with countless other trans women, endure throughout their lives. “When My Brother Makes aJoke About Trans Panic,” one of the last poems in the collection, especially relates to the concept of the body being a crime that requires a fitting punishment. This is another example of greathouse using the cyclical nature of pain in tandem with the cycles of life and death in Woundfrom the Mouth of a Wound. greathouse begins their collection with their figurative birth and ends it with their figurative death with the poem “The Body of a Girl Lies on the Asphalt Like the Body of a Girl.” For this reason, I believe greathouse intended the poems in this book to be read both in the order they appear as well as in reverse order. After all, an ouroboros starts and ends at the same place. 


Wound from the Mouth of a Wound is a queer disabled trans woman’s reclamation of her own narrative, which is apparent by looking at the cover depicting a statue of a hunted mythological creature/woman holding the head of her killer. While greathouse uses the story of Medusa as anallegory for their pain, they are also giving a voice to a deeply misunderstood figure in Greek mythology, allowing her to also reclaim her own narrative. 






 



Sophie Dufresne studies creative writing at Concordia University in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, Canada. They fell in love with poetry after reading "Hope" by Emily Dickinson in sixth grade and are now interested in the way form informs content (or is it the other way around?). They were the publishing intern at Metonymy Press this past summer and are currently the copy editor of The Encore Poetry Project, a local literary and arts initiative. Sophie is also an editor at Yiara Magazine.


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