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2

Poetry

They say- It was my fate...!

Bhavya Jain

Every night as I fail to sleep, I wince in pain and cry,
Hideous night keeps coming to me, when I was left to die;

Those lusty blows, & ugly smiles, those helpless cries of mine,
That painful echo in the mind, those shivers down the spine;

Wounds heal but scars refuse- voice chokes down the throat,
As lusty imprints adorned my soul, left naked down the road;

I had died that night... and since- I die each day.
Waiting to die one final day- am cursed to live that way;

And yet....
"you asked for it" they say, "why out so late" they say,
The way I dressed, they say "was not the modest way";

My "honour got defiled" they say, thus making me outcast,
I had it coming "for all my ways", met comeuppance at last.

It was my fault, they say- I overstepped my bounds,
"Submit or suffer"- the rule to play, the world is full of hounds.

Your dress, your gait, your every trait- must calibrate to male mandate,
Failing which has price to pay- they would call it "woman's fate"...!

Predators raped my body once, "they" rape my soul each day,
Waiting to die one final day- am cursed to live that way...

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