from google




She is you …



They say she is opinionated, rude even, and lacking all tact,

they expect her to be demure, to brew tea and cook, so that suitable suitors she may attract.



They castigate her for not following the norm,

they expect her to weather the relentless storm in hushed silence, with acceptance and aplomb.



They dismiss her for being “loud-mouthed”, for speaking her mind,

they demand from her the acceptance of the gnawing shackles that to her bind.



Yes,



she lives in gilded cages, while the blood in her veins rages,

she is condemned to the countless leaking, freezing, boiling shacks, facing horrors untold,

she is used, her body abused, to be bartered, battered and sold.

A single mother, she is savaged by their barbed whispers, their narrow, antiquated attitudes,

while on mother’s and women’s day they pummel her with their hollow meaningless  platitudes.



They speak disparagingly of her flouting cultural, sectarian, and their narrow-minded claptrap,

even as she wrestles the demons, the indignity, the trauma of the punches and kicks, the slaps after slap.



They damn her for unclipping her wings, as she soars free into the open sky,

all the while our silent complicity,

kicks her to the cold ground where she is expected to cower and lie.




She is you, and you are her,

and may you continue to be,

unflinching, unbowed,

and always, always true.





from google