After the recent TRA (Trans Rights Activists) attacks on Nina Paley, a very talented film maker, I decided that I would post my poem ‘what Queenie says about Sita’. I wrote this after seeing Nina Paley’s film Sita Sings the Blues in 2010 when I was studying Sanskrit at ANU.
The poem is from my book Cow (2011) and Queenie is an intergalactic cow with a deep knowledge of philosophy (she has been around for many millennia and seen it all); she knows every famous cow who has ever been; and is quite keen on any religion in which cows play an important part (and there are many of them). Cow is a book full of mythic stories and my retelling of Sita is just one among many.
what Queenie says about Sita
Sita was no slouch just a woman
in the tumult of emotion
she tried to help her man get a life
get out and about
she said why not follow that deer dear
she needed time alone
but it’s always been hard for women
to find solitude
Sita was no different
soon the rival king was coming round
asking for samosas with pickles and chutney
and before she knew it
he had her tucked up in his flying chariot
heading south
she flew with him
to see a bit of the country from the air
but Raavana had other ideas
he tried to woo her
but that wasn’t why she consorted
a mountain from a molehill
before she knew it the scouts
were arriving on her doorstep
begging her to turn back
why
couldn’t Rama come and ask her himself?
if she wasn’t important enough
for a visit
why bother?
so she stayed on
at the mountain resort
with its beach views elephants peacocks
temples evening dancing
and good intelligent conversation
Raavana too didn’t get it
what was it with these men?
can’t they tell the difference
between great conversation and no desire for sex?
(in the case of Raavana)
or great love lust and passion
but no wish to give up on
intellectual pursuits
for housework sitting pretty
and emotional deserts?
(in the case of Rama)
all Sita wanted
was a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle
was it really that hard?
she contemplated suicide
this woman who knew her mind
she could not understand why Rama
ten months after her capture
had not come to fight for her
but suicide is hard without implements
and then came the war
unwarranted
just as for Helen across the desert lands
there seemed no end to the bloodshed
the fear the escalating madness
of war hatred destruction
once started
she was no longer relevant to the discussion
she tried negotiating
nothing happening
tried the cold shoulder
only to inflame the passions of Raavana
she retreated
kept out of sight
one day a great conflagration arose
a river of blood
the palace burnt to the ground
Raavana lost his head
there was Rama standing before her
his eyes cold
his heart stone
but there was nothing else for it
but to turn homeward
it hadn’t changed a bit
still irrelevant in Rama’s list of duties
she sat alone like Penelope
waiting for the man
she thought she knew to return
before long she noticed the early signs
she conceived what was to come
well before her belly swelled
this time he evicted her
sent her into exile
she was not much more alone
and here she could
get her life back together
stop waiting for someone to notice her
she started a school for the study of language
people came from the lands all around
they told stories
recited day-long epic poems
played music
danced and painted
finally life was good
she became revered
among the people
for her intelligence her wit
her sense of justice and fun
they also thought her beautiful
one among
many fine attributes
Sita stayed in her own country
her children flourished
knowing only a little of their mother’s trials
(of their father they knew only
that he had been most interested
in his reputation among men)
Notes on the poem
Sita: a foundling, regarded as the daughter of Bhudevi, the earth gooddess. Sita’s name means furrow, the line of a ploughshare; she was discovered in a furrow of a ploughed field. She is a principle player in the epic Ramayana and married to Rama.
Raavana: the demon king of Lanka.
Rama the exiled king of Ayodhya.
You can watch Nina Paley’s animated movie Sita Sings the Blues here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=RzTg7YXuy34
It has had almost a million viewers.
Nina Paley on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Paley
For an image, I like this one:
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html
The film is produced under a copyleft licence. So images can be shared.
You can find out more about my book Cow here: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/
Meet Mago Contributor, Susan Hawthorne