Scarlett O'hara The Heroine Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

Scarlett O'Hara the heroine
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
Scarlett O'Hara was played by Vivian Leigh
In the movie version of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind
And her hero, Rhett Butler, was played by Clark Gable
And this was a movie my father and mother had taken me to along with an older female cousin
When I was in the 5th grade in the Bangalore Drive-In theatre;

I later found that the movie had kept true to the written classic
Which is a misnomer my son has always said because it glorifies slavery
But the book was set in America prior to and soon after the Civil War
And I love the book and adore the characters for the author
Has sketched them out beautifully;

As a young girl who possessed a sensuous woman's body
I had thought that Clark Gable with a sardonic expression on his slightly swarthy countenance
When he comes out from behind the fireplace after Scarlett throws a porcelain curio,
Was the quintessence of a hero
But in the book, I fell in love with both the characters;

As I had said in an essay published in Deccan Herald later in my late teens,
Scarlett is a bitchy, catty heroine but you cannot help adoring her
And Melanie Wilkes despite her goodness, one cannot fall in love with
And the same is true for Rhett Butler as is for Scarlett
But one thinks that Ashley is an aseptic character;

It was pointed out to me much later when I was in my mid to late thirties
That I was more like Melanie Wilkes in character,
High minded and high principled in many ways
But I must say that I have some Scarlett in me
For I also love men if they have winsome and generous ways;

Since I just planned a painting around Bob Dylan's poem,
I will continue in the same vein as the poem
And will ask, How many hearts does Scarlett O'Hara break
In the ball at the Wilkes residence?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind;

How heartbroken is she when Ashely says that he cannot marry her
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
How bereaved a widow is she when Charles Hamilton dies
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind;

How much in love with Rhett is Scarlett when she marries him
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
How much does Rhett sexually please Scarlett after he becomes her husband
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind
And so on and so forth;

How much in love with Rhett she is, does Scarlett find out
The answer, my friend, echoes from the blowing wind,
Very much, so much so that
When her hopes for a happy life together are dashed to the ground
Her mind rises from the ashes of her killed hope,
And she is buoyed by the thought
That she could always get any man she wanted
For after all, Tomorrow is another day!

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Please note: I would like to thank MS-WORD for its automatic formatting settled a grammatical question in my mind.