by Vinita Agrawal
To resist evil rapists
keep women’s dignity intact
to realize that real shame rests
on the doer of the act
To dissolve the boundaries
splitting land from land
to clasp into your own
an enemy’s friendly hand
To voice disgust at politics
bombarding civilian life
and condemn petty power
that bleeds profits from strife
To choose your partner
whether same sex or not
to step down from the fence
and freely voice your thought
To see many monsoons
in the glimmer of one pair of eyes
to unlearn everything you knew
and admit that love is a surprise
To open up to remembering
when memories beckon you
to cherish your pain
and shed a tear or two
To rebel against force
and risk turning friend to foe
to say what you feel
with the power of a No
This is true freedom
as it should be…
not just hoisting a flag
for all to gaze and see
Pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/
Vinita is a Mumbai based writer and poet. Her poems have been published in Asiancha, Raedleaf Poetry , Wordweavers, OpenRoad Review, Constellations, The Fox Chase Review, Spark, The Taj Mahal Review, CLRI, SAARC Anthologies, Kritya.org, Touch- The Journal of healing, Museindia, Everydaypoets.com, Mahmag World Literature, The Criterion, The Brown Critique, Twenty20journal.com, Sketchbook, Poetry 24, Mandala and others which include several international anthologies. Her poem was nominated for the Best of the Net Awards 2011 by CLRI. She received a prize from MuseIndia in 2010. Her debut collection of poems titled Words Not Spoken published by Sampark/Brown Critique was released in November 2013. Her poem was awarded a prize in the Wordweavers contest 2013.
To be honest, I didn’t think much when I read the first three stanzas. But then from the third line of the fourth stanza, everything just picked up more than just a notch. Very intelligently written!