A meteor locked in orbit,
my hair is the tail of a comet.

Cursed from the moment I refused
Apollo, it is not wolf I cry.

Trapped in the voice of a penny
arcade fortune teller,

I see it all: foretell the fall of Troy,
grieve twice as Achilles slays

Hector and parades the ransom.
I contain my own destruction.

Rape and murder caution the virgins
in vain. They know I am powerless

to persuade or alter my course.
Entranced—I swallow fire.

Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Women’s Review of Books, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Bellevue Literary Review. She leads a double life on Long Island where she works in the insurance industry.