Viral Woman

 

The woman from Delhi, and the one from Kashmir, both earlier this year,
and the one on telly, from somewhere near here,
and many more; beautiful names they bore.
Many more, far too many more;
Oh the beauty and the terror in the names they bore!

Each one of them, when her screams were choked,
was it a prayer or a curse that she invoked?

Was it a prayer or a curse that she invoked
when her scream was choked?

Her scream has gone viral.
In a smoky spiral, spreads
into other women
her pain;
pain, viral, vaginal, spiritual, cultural, eternal..….
No woman now is only herself.
Woman gone viral!

She is the aborted female foetus,
the bound bloody foot, sad
told she is mad and bad,
frigid if she says no,
a whore if she wants a go,
too sassy, too small,
too smart, too tall,
sold, controlled,  butted, rutted, survivor….

Forever survivor,
screaming louder and louder………
in spite of the fables glorifying her abuse,
minimised by media, made back page news,
physiology,  psychology used as excuse.

In an age beyond abolition,
emancipation
and human rights,
she fights
for life;
a crucible
about to ignite.