Raped!

 Broken, naked and desolate I walk 

Barefoot and crazed and bleeding, 

Legs and Toes? 

Or does the blood seep through my eyes? 

Those earthly threads of cotton and sweat 

Enfold my skin no longer 

I’ve lost my skin as I’ve lost my clothes

My innocence and my faith. 

The blood runs down my exposed thighs

Oblivious to my sobs and cries. 

Mother, why do you forsake me? 

Father, why did you not let me know? 

Those monsters hidden under my bed 

Will someday clamber in with me

They will tear my flesh and bite at my soul 

Their human face more terrifying than sin.

I closed my thighs like you’ve taught me to

Fought with learning and confidence 

But what would monsters know of education and like? 

What would they know of my right to breathe? 

An empty vessel to be filled with pain 

Bones and limbs that I dare not call my own

The glass under my feet, soon clutch at my heart. 

Breaking, with my shattered, tired body. 

 It wasn’t a skirt, I swear on mom

It was a saree that I had donned. 

My modesty and your honour was well intact 

And yet, my dignity from me was torn. 

  ********************************

And where did he put his c***, she asked

Her khaki armour shone pale, 

Are you one of those girls I know 

Who’ll yield to any male? 

And so it goes - my first information report.

Why, Sita bore so much more! she mused. 

Your body is not a temple raped 

Just because it’s a little torn and bruised. 

Boys will be boys and they’ll have their toys,

Your must have asked them to come out and play.

And now you scream of blood and shards 

When we both know, with them you would have stayed. 

A doctor called to stitch me up 

Only the flesh he said he could sew 

My heart, my soul was mine to mend 

With a noose or a poisonous brew. 

So far from home, the light grows dim 

Kill me now, should I have pleaded with him? 

I see no whites in the endless black. 

If only my parents had taken me back.