Women Poetry: Ms. Sankalpita Mullick, India

Exclusive: Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

FRIENDSHIP, FREEDOM AND BEAUTY THROUGH THE FEMALE GAZE

Sankalpita Mullick

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

The silence of Philomela,

A tapestry of words woven by song,

Losing themselves to find their voice, the sisters were finally free.

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

The mourning of the Sirens,

Wails to find their sister, corrupted by the sea.

Enchanted, sailors gave up their hearts screaming, “Take me! Take me!”.

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

The myth of Medusa,

Courage masked by fury; her suffering forgotten as she was perceived as scary.

The tales of her petrifying, outweighing her trauma and becoming her legacy.

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

The myth of Medusa,

The boon of protection, seen as the curse of being shunned as horrific…of being mocked as ugly.

Her façade a blessing, it took a Goddess to foresee.

Hear Ye Hear Ye,

The gaze that we’ve internalized and embodied,

That places beauty above all,

But such suffocating beauty is worthless when you hear a woman roar.

Sankalpita Mullick is a 19-year-old author and law student. She authored her book- Metamorphosis: Legends Comes to Life, when she was 13. Her first book Metamorphosis was published at 14.  She is a part of an international writer’s collective with the Instagram handle: mind_melt_worldwide. She was the recipient of a scholarship by the United States, State Department for a fully funded writing program to Iowa, USA (Between the Lines-Iowa Writing Program). She has also been one of the winners of the Hindustan Times creative (essay) writing competition and she has won the LaughGuru National creative writing competition receiving scholarships for both. She is an avid reader and a passionate writer.

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