[Glenn Wright]

This is the statuary group that the poem is based on:
https://images.app.goo.gl/dPLFgjZDKXfGUGdb8

Version 2
Serpents

The marble statue of Laocoön
ambushes visitors as they make the turn
into its courtyard in the Vatican.

The calm and classic setting fails to warn
of the lacerating violence of the display.
The God of mercy should condemn with scorn

the wrath of Neptune, eager to betray
his priest and innocent boys with snakes, whose fangs
will kill them in a murderous ballet.

Just so did raped Medusa feel the pangs
when punished by Minerva so unfairly.
A nest of serpents from her temples hangs

and turns to stone who looks upon her squarely.
Laocoön’s terror leaves his deity
unmoved, and if the gods should notice, barely,

they note the presentation’s grim austerity,
as if Medusa snapped it for posterity.



Version 1
Laocoön

The marble statue of Laocoön
ambushes visitors as they make the turn
into its courtyard in the Vatican.

The calm, octagonal setting fails to warn
of the lacerating violence of the scene.
Vergil describes the priest of Neptune’s scorn

for Greeks bearing gifts. He chucked a spear between
the horse’s wooden planks, just missing the head
of sly Ulysses. From the ocean’s green

and boiling waves two crimson snakes have sped,
fulfilling Neptune’s curse; both priest and boys
are tangled in their scaly coils. The dread

just before the poisonous fang destroys
the father and sons, betrayed by their deity,
is seared into their faces. The god enjoys

the artful presentation’s grim austerity,
as if Medusa snapped it for posterity.
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Edits:
S3L3: Into > From
S5L1: just as > just before