‘The Snakes have Hollows’: Crafting Life

Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

The poem “The Snakes Have Hollows” by Vipitha V is translated into English by Ravi Shanker N. Vipitha V has published poems on various online and offline platforms. 

Some of her notable works include “A Breastfeeding Woman,” “Kissing a Dead Man“, etc.

The poem “The Snakes have Hollows” describes the activities of Poonjeli, a woman immersed in her household chores. 

The poem’s refrain, “the snakes have hollows; the birds have skies,” is the translation of the famous Malayalam song Pambukalkku malamundu, paravakalkku aakashamundu manushyaputhranu thalachaikkan mannilidamilla, composed by Vayalar Ramavarma for the play Ashwamedham (1962).

At the beginning, Poonjeli hums the opening two lines of the song — “The snakes have hollows; the birds have skies…” — seemingly while working in the kitchen. As she hums, the poet also evokes the smell of roasted peas and beaten rice soaked in sugar, two popular Kerala snacks – Kadala varuthathu and aval nanachathu respectively. Poonjeli, in a hurry, hums the song while scooping out coconut flesh in slices to use as bait for trapping the mice in her kitchen.

In her kitchen, there is an old rusty mousetrap, which seems to signal her to put it to use against the pesky rodents, thereby setting up a quiet battlefield between her and the mice. Some small mice squeak and scuttle away, hiding under a Chinese frying pan, a familiar utensil in Kerala kitchens, as though they sense the deadly trap. Meanwhile, a white mouse gnaws at a sack, as though inspired by a revelation that its final meal is hidden in the form of a coconut slice placed there deceptively.

The poet reflects that death itself might prove to be a strange kind of liberty awaiting them. Intent on her task, Poonjeli picks up the mousetrap, scrutinises it from various angles, hooks the coconut slices onto it, and drags it near the sack. As she does so, she again hums the recurring lines of the song — “The snakes have hollows; the birds have skies…”

The poem sketches the household chores of Poonjeli, who is probably from a low socio-economic background.  The setting, as stated above, is her kitchen, which may be her workplace assigned to her by the patriarchy. Within this space, she passively sets a mousetrap while humming an old theatre song that becomes both background and symbol. The song itself carries a philosophical meaning, reflecting humanity’s position, identity, and complex ideas about life’s meaning, ultimately suggesting that human existence is more pathetic than that of animals and birds. Thus, the poem can be read from an existential perspective. The mousetrap, however, is not only a practical object but also an image and a symbol: it represents the various traps created by society, such as those of caste, creed, gender, and socioeconomic status. The poem also lends itself to a postcolonial reading, where the mousetrap embodies the power struggles between coloniser and colonised, along with the enforced marginalisation and subjugation. At the same time, it has feminist and gender undertones, exposing how power is exercised and how women are often forced into ultimate submission. The mousetrap can further be read as a symbol of fate and destiny, onto which human beings inevitably succumb.

The poem suggests that those on the margins of society have no voice in decision-making, as their lives are controlled and mapped out by existing power hierarchies. In this broader symbolic framework, Poonjeli represents depressed women across the world, victims of poverty, inequality, and marginalisation.

Vipitha V’s poem “The Snakes Have Hollows” also highlights the contrast between freedom in nature and the harsh struggles of daily survival. The theme revolves around hunger, vulnerability, and the inevitability of death, shown through ordinary yet powerful imagery like roasted peas, beaten rice soaked in sugar, coconut slices, squeaking mice, and the rusty smell of a mousetrap. The poem uses strong symbols: the lines “snakes have hollows” and “birds have skies” stand for natural freedom, while the mousetrap represents death and entrapment, and the mice symbolise helpless beings caught in the cycle of survival, with the sack hiding the “last supper”.

The tone moves from the simplicity of daily chores to a dark, ominous reflection on mortality, creating a mood that shifts between calmness and danger.

The message is clear. Though nature offers freedom in theory, life is filled with traps, chaos, and struggles for existence, reminding us that death and destruction often lurk beneath the surface of everyday simplicity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKS CITED

Poems by Vipitha