Of Lions and Beasts
Jul 20 2010

 

Of Lions and Beasts

The lions stand defiantly,
Overlooking the aging sea.
The ocean waves around my skin;
The quiet roar won’t let me be.

The plastic cages keep me bound,
Tightly, softly in a dew-like tether.
They move my mind to places I cannot go;
Which lead me to regions nether.

So I must wait until the time,
The rising sun will shine upon my heart.
And take me to a warmer clime;
Where love is appreciated like discriminating art.

But the beast that lives in all of us,
Is harshly judged by one and all.
And will never truly live without much fuss;
Until we can safely emerge from underneath the shawl.

© June – July 2010 Aruni S. Gunasegaram
Barcelona, Spain; Austin, Texas

I decided to share another poem on my blog.  This one didn’t come as easy as the Streets of Barcelona.  Well, I’d say 90% of the words came, but it took longer, and I had to do more editing before it felt right.  I wrote most of this while sitting next to this statue of the lion in the photo.  These statues were just across the street from a little port where they launched tourist boats to sea.  I played with the visual presentation a little bit.  If you look closely you’ll see that one line in each stanza is slightly longer than the longest line in the previous stanza.  You’ll also see that the first and third lines in the first two stanzas don’t rhyme but they do in the second two stanzas.  In a poem I wrote on the airplane flight from Madrid to Dallas, the last words of the 1st and 3rd lines of each stanza relate to each other but don’t rhyme.  I didn’t realize that until after I had written that one which surprised me a bit.

This poem is about the majesty of lions and the beastliness of them as well, just like humans.  Humans are so powerful and noble, yet we often forget that we are also made of animal/beastly stuff that surfaces from time to time.  The lions and lionesses, fortunately, have no such rules to deny their beastly sides because they are free to be what they are unless they are captured and put in a zoo.

The reference to ‘shawl’ has to do with religions that require their women to be covered up so that men cannot see any of their flesh that might tempt the beast in them.  In Western religions women don’t have the same rules to hide most of their body, but I’ve come to discover I/we hide other parts of ourselves: our true minds and thoughts.  As women, moms, wives, proverbial keepers of the family, we hide behind those shawls for many reasons mainly because we were told in lore they would keep us safe.  The trouble is they don’t keep us safe from our true selves and what’s hiding behind those shawls might be much more provocative to others (men or women) than mere flesh, which could explain why in some parts of the world a woman’s opinion/voice is just not heard.

I’ve seen other women cling to customs/behaviors and judge others based on them.  Not because they believe them to be right or true but because that’s how they were taught, and they are too afraid of change and sometimes even freedom.  I’ll be writing about a book I’m reading on the topic of choice.  With choice comes more freedom but also a lot of anxiety and stress.  The more options we have, the more knowledge we have about the ‘paths not taken.’

Author: Aruni | Filed under: poetry | Tags: dallas, lions and beasts, madrid, poetry in barcelona, spain | Comments Off on Of Lions and Beasts

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