“The Eclipse of Medusa’’

By Anish kanjilal

“The Eclipse of Medusa’’

The Full Moon:

***

Nocturnal night casts its shadow

The olive stands tall addressing her

Chastity, deglamourising the

briny spring which had

aroused from the Acropolis.

Up on the Acropolis above Athens

stands “Parthenon” glistering

below Diana.

The columns of white bannering purity

and assuring of invulnerableness.

Inside on a pedestal stands

Athena cast and decor

with a Midas’s touch.

A parade of athlete — bards, artisan, priestess

and maidens crawl up the hill

with their offerings.

now left inclined and attracted

to the Gorgeous Gorgon Medusa.

Her vanity triggering the Goddess’s

envy, a loyal devotee stealing

the show and robbing Athena

of her superiority — she is the fair glow

silky haired Medusa.

***

The full moon sluggishly goes behind the earth

and plunges into its shadow,

The columns now are stained with soot,

The wind halts for a while and

the well perched owl hoots too frequently.

Someone sabotages to replenish

her vengeance.

The earth in a reverie

well Canopied with dark clouds

While Medusa’s reflection changes to that

of young Narcissus

Beauty and self — love mingling

together on the mirror like water,

Until the high tides disrupted everything

Until the ocean rose up to kiss the

firmament and fed on earth

to gratify its hunger for lust.

The tremors shook the shore

While Aegean flooded and paved his

way to Parthenon where

Medusa had been praying.

The Eclipse:

***

The flood fills up the pits,

The fever of earthquake rips

me of my innocence.

The horse’s hoofs gallop on me

tearing me apart from my chastity.

The bellowing of the bull

The thrusting of the trident

while Neptune runs away with

his booty.

And my Olympian faith drowns

with the Titanic.

Somewhere in the sky Hera wails while hanging from the stars

reminding the earth of how Zeus had raped her.

While the winter returns narrating

the earth of how Persephone

was bluffed, abducted

and despoiled by Hades in

the plutonian world.

Menstrual repeats opposing the

law of nature.

Crucifixion of Demeter, Despoina

and Soteria.

While the lecherous Earth shaker, the disguised Jupiter and

unseen Orcus Keep on molesting the Charter.

And the Goddess nothing but a

standing spectator saves her

Archaean heroes.

My puberty aborted

My chastity auctioned

My pregnancy a patriarch

And my motherhood castrated

--- I am your Medusa

Inside the Eclipse:

***

Now I am cursed for they

call me venomous.

Exiled and segregated from mankind

for I can benumb and petrify.

I am the accused for the world thinks my beauty was too much

to be blamed,

I am the culprit for the libidos

are the adjudicators.

I walk in shade while holding the

hand of isolation as they

have besmeared my face with acid

I am Death with oversized eyes,

protrude tongue and wrinkled skin,

Adders dance on me for

is it my sin?

I have the looks that can kill

As suitors freeze as if

they are stone.

Once born with grace now left out to be lone

Awaiting Perseus in whom

ambition has grown.

Beyond the Eclipse:

***

It is eventide, it is aphotic,

The sky has commingled with the ocean.

The clouds lie dead on the shore,

Light flickers in the gloom

and Medusa in her solitary

Confinement stands surrounded

with prejudices — judged,

prosecuted and convicted.

She can neither rest in peace

nor live a life without fear.

But only to gaze at her

reflection and stand stoned.

Finally, it happens to be the night

of golden shower,

When her spirit would rise

as Pegasus.

And her soul would turn into

a constellation,

for she would rise above

the ocean and exist

in the empyrean celestial

As a reminder of injustice

As a defender of good

As an armour to all what

is nefarious

She is Perseus’s elegy, She is epic,

……She is Medusa.

By Anish kanjilal