Women Poetry: Dr. Paramita Mukherjee Mullick, India

Exclusive: Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

Paramita Mukherjee Mullick

MYTH DISENTANGLED

Medusa, the monster with venomous snakes on her head.

Medusa, who turns her onlookers into stone.

Don’t you see she has taken up all the venom of the world on her head?

Lord Shiva had drunk up the poison of the oceans.

So has she, absorbed up poison of the whole world.

Taken up on herself to clear the world of venom.

Like a tigress who protects her cubs

Always vigilant, always alert with stern eyes.

So is Medusa with her stern look turning vicious people into stone.

Washing the world of evil influences.

Protecting, guarding all like a mother.

Gorgo, the guardian of all.

The daughter of Gorgon and Ceto.

Why do we hail Perseus as a hero?

Was beheading Medusa heroic?

Was using her head as a weapon heroic?

The beautiful Medusa, a protector, fearsome and enraged.

Guarding and protecting so her myth goes on age after age.

***

GORGONEION*

The head of Medusa appears on the Gorgoneion.

For averting evil and bad influences.

So how can we call Medusa evil?

The one who protects from evil cannot be evil.

Her stern look, her enraged visage.

She is there to protect and for us a war to wage.

With tangled snakes on her head.

Turning people gazing at her into stone.

The beautiful Medusa stands alone.

Burdening herself to clear the venom of the world.

She was once made the logo of a fashion company.

The averter of evil is called evil, what irony!

*Gorgoneion—evil averting device

***

Dr. Paramita Mukherjee Mullick is a scientist transformed into a poet. She has six books to her credit and her poems have been translated into 39 languages. She is the Founder President of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library Mumbai Chapter. Her poems have been widely published in Indian and foreign journals and she has been blessed with numerous national and international awards. She believes in positivity and finds out silver linings in every cloud of gloom.

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The Myth of Medusa Deconstructed :: Setu, March 2021