Path of Feminists: Shubham Shree's Poetry

JUST FOR YOU, SIMONE

1.

What have you done to me, Simone?

I was walking along

perfectly steady

on that path where

goddess-worthy

‘Purity’

awaited me

What you did was wrong . . .

you shoved me right in the middle of the path

to be ‘used’

such a dirty word

Tell me, Simone, why’d you do a thing like that?

2.

You

flow—

a word inside me

a thirst soars

I hear

a beautiful melody

If only I could write such a poem

after meeting you

All I’ve written instead

is the name ‘Simone’

all over the entire page

criss-cross

3.

I know you

You’ll start out talking about Derrida

Suddenly Virginia will flash through your mind

as you quote Bertrand Russell

You’ll explain Vatsayayan

in an argument about quotas for women

A full dozen cigarettes will burn to ash

on the way to my freedom

Despite loathing your kind

I adore you

I know

the meaning of equality

is not employment, quotas, or power

It’s getting in bed

my living body

I know

you want a few intimate moments

in order to make your mark on being ‘truly modern’

After some ‘elite’ and ‘intellectual’ sex

when I will think

I am free

truly modern too . . .

then

I know

you’ll think of one little word

loose

4.

Do you know, Simone,

I often think

no, not think: want

to send

a few copies of The Second Sex

not to the women

who are updating their blogs

in a hurry for a meeting

wrapped up in debate

not to ‘thinking women’

No, to those

who sit

waiting for a groom to be bought for them

They’ve already claimed

a few years running

to be nineteen

I want

someday, when they’re embroidering

crocheting

watching serials

to quietly hand over a copy

Since the pay hikes of the Sixth Pay Commission

boys have gotten expensive

Loans won’t cover the cost

Those women pray

sixteen Mondays

five Tuesdays seven Saturdays

without water without food

I want

them to read

instead of the tale of the Thursday Fast

you, your words

You know

I am afraid

I don’t know

when

they’ve spent

their time

cooking

sewing

embroidering flowers on saris

by then

at the age of thirty

if by chance the deal

has been sealed

bound in the marriage sutra

pretending to be a girl of twenty-one

if they begin to store their bangles

wrapped

in the pages of The Second Sex

what then, Simone?

I was reading Simone de Beauvoir before life got in the way. I did read Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique, and it helped me make sense of my situation as a new mom. I like the way Shubham Shree transplants Simone de Beauvoir to India.

I like Shubham Shree's references to the fasting women, and the kicker at the end - bangles wrapped in The Second Sex! Ouch.

Shubham Shree wrote Poetry Management, which won a prize but got into a controversy. A funny poem, but I liked 'Just For You, Simone' better.

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