You Say When I Bleed.
Don’t touch us. Your presence – An incarnation of Lakshmi one day and Durga the next. The harbinger of ill fate today.
Don’t step into our kitchens. Your food – Brimming with heavenly deliciousness each day. Poison to our hearts today.
Don’t enter our temples. Your prayers – The anchor for our lives every day. The murk in our sacred waters today.
Don’t come to our last rites. Your love – Spreading the sunshine of happiness. A curse to eternal damnation today.
I Bled.
I bled and I touched. You called my presence your lucky charm.
I bled and I cooked. You applauded me and licked your fingers clean.
I bled and I prayed. You praised my piousness.
I bled and I loved. You reveled in my affection.
I bled and I hid it. You lived. You liked. You found nothing wrong.
Tell Me Then.
My womb – revered when carrying a baby, yet unclean when preparing for one. WHY?
My mind – a disciple of reasoning, still looking for answers from you who think I’m wrong. WHEN?
My world – uncontaminated and healthy, notwithstanding my breaking the rusted chains of blind customs. HOW?
I wait with an open heart and listen with an eager mind, dear world.
Explain to me your ways and I shall comply.
Convince my mind and I shall not defy.
But if you fail,
Accept I have proven you wrong all my life, and send a promise my way.
A promise – to let go of what we cannot answer.
A promise – to ask a Why before we follow.
A promise – to keep alive in us, the essence of our past but not the past itself!