Yes...I do bleed.

-By Mahima Rabia

To the "learned" Lords of the Universe -
I beg you no pardon for my origin.
No appraisal I demand.
No branding I command.

The flood in me shrivels down.
The gender I own
will  be rewarded a crown,
u said.
But here I find a whole lot
different plot!
They are shaming your creation.
Defaming your peculiar innovation.

The periodic pain of exclusion
stains out the ignorance.
My blood's flow that is a necessity,
and the adversities of their mindsets,
that is a tragedy ;
all this I find a gauche.

They skim me off the temple staircase,
calling me tainted and impure
framing me as a PROFANE  human race.
I own you Lord...
the way you command me as yours.

There is this barricade of ridicule
that the men have put
and the women follow it
as a hard core rule.

Hold on!
Are the MEN only to be banged upon?
No.
No my Lord!
The stance of women too is a sin here,
I openly say.

'Coz ... hey!
Do YOU  girls not step back
on your periods?
Are their not moms and ladies over here
who teach their daughters "etiquettes"?

And what sort of?...
"That... my child,
as you stream this impurity,
no matter what good you hold within,
you'll still not be a sanctity.
Once you cross this bar of puberty,
you are a matter of impurity
and an obscure blemish of obscenity.

I HAVE seen girls hesitating, my Lord!
I have seen them sitting back at home
when there's a Pooja or
some sort of ritual.
They cage themselves within the
bars of brain-dead stereotypes.
They themselves tag this blessing of yours as a shame-faced scar.

A blessing?...
Wait... why do you look so awkward?
'Coz I call it a "blessing"
and I'm not being backward?
My folks,
this bleeding, marks your existence.
This cycle,
this menstrual cycle
bore you in her womb.
You own no right
to put her in a doom.

I may sound horrific, my Lord.
But I beg you to not pardon me
for what I am.
I do appeal you
to gift some wit
to your ignorant kids.