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Poetry: Dear World, What Must a Woman Do to Please You?

By Nivedha Babu [10 Ebadi]

Femininity
Sanguinity 
Virginity
The Holy Trinity

Your life’s purpose
Is to be at service
Or else a nuisance
A noise that disrupts us

Look picture perfect
To be accepted
Act like an inanimate object
When you feel disrespected

You’ll be coerced
Before you can think to say NO first
Your fault for being temptations 
It was your intention
Your choice, Your decision

Wearing short skirts
It was an obvious flirt
Not nameless perverts at shame
It's you, the child, who's to blame

A woman's worth
Is born and lost at birth
You cry when innocence dies
Which makes everyone sigh

“I want to be an exception”
So to change misconception
You put on your finest face
To retrace and find a place

So you shift your personality to masculinity
To defeat the anarchy of the patriarchy 
Wouldn't let tears ever fall in front of other eyes
Would even laugh in front of the taunting horrors of “humour” in front of others

To keep up with facade
You would lie again and again
To make a difference
You would pretend

You wouldn't cry at the funeral
Only to look up at the sky at night
To not complain and create dismay
Until one cold day it finally rains

She can finally choose to
Cry till the Nile River dries
Smile till it's brighter than sunshine
Be more assertive than the ones in power
Be softer than the bloom of spring flowers
Be repulsed by romance of all kind
Be more enchanting than the stars tonight

A Woman
Can dress for herself to express
Does not need to smile in excess to find success
Is not worthless based on one’s delusional man-made fantasy of chastity

Is here to find her World
HerStory