The Sea

(c) Shubhrata Prakash

They say I am the sea

I get pulled by my father, the Sun

I get pulled by my lover, the Moon

I keep oscillating between the two.

They say I have no will of my own.

They say that’s the law of nature.

I can never be free.

I shall always be bound by the Sun and Moon

The churning rod in my own churning

Between the two loves of my life.

They say I am the sea

Always fickle, always whimsical

Always even hormonal

Sometimes I wax

Sometimes I wane

Am I really sane?

They say I don’t know my own mind

They say I can’t be left alone

That is why I am kept chained

To all my sea sisters

All kept linked together

Bound by the Sun and the Moon.

Of course, they are men.

They know their minds.

They know how to keep waves of women under control

Waves of infinite water….some of it even our briny tears

We - the sisterhood of the seas.

They say I am the sea

Okay that’s what I am.

But have they forgotten my depths?

Have they succeeded in binding me?

Can they ever capture my fist in theirs?

Ha..ha..ha..all they will have is sand

They can have some shells too

Crabs maybe?

But they can never have me.

My father and my lover may try to keep me in check

But when we sisters turn to our Mother Earth

She cannot see our plight

She quakes with anger and cries tears of lava

Can you quell the curse of a mother ?

No.

A mother gives her daughters so much power

That the energy scares all men.

Free of the Sun, free of the Moon

The sisters rise in rebellion

The sister seas rise so high that no man can control them

For they all run for their lives

To escape the tsunami of waves of our anger.

And when the anger dissipates

Man rues the day

When he called woman the sea

Ye men

Who think they control the seas

Through men like themselves

The Sun and the Moon

Never ye forget

That there’s Mother Earth too

Who sets her daughters free

So, when ye go mad with thy powers

Think of the Earth

And her free daughters.

(c) Shubhrata Prakash


(From "Ink On Water"......coming soon)