When a man tells me
I’m beautiful
I don’t believe him.
Instead, I relive my days in high school
When no matter how good I was
I was always the girl with a moustache
He doesn’t know what it’s like
to grow up in your maternal family
Where your body is the only one that
Proudly boasts of your father’s X
While your mother’s X sits back and pities
It’s unladylike-ness
He doesn’t know the teenager
Who filled her corners with
Empty consolations of
Being loved for who she was- someday.
He doesn’t know hypocrisy.
He doesn’t know of the world that
tells you to ‘be yourself’
and sells you a fair and lovely shade card
in the same fucking breath
He doesn’t know of the hot wax and the laser
whose only purpose is to
replace your innocent skin
with its own brand of womanhood
He doesn’t know of the veet and the bleach
That uproot your robust hair
in the name of hygiene
Hygiene, which when followed by men
makes them gay and unmanly
He doesn’t know how bushy eyebrows are tamed
and how uni brows die a silent death
All to preserve beauty
And of the torturous miracles that happen
Inside the doors marked
WOMEN ONLY
So when a man calls me beautiful
I throw at him, a smile; a smile that remained
After everything the strip pulled away
And I dare him
To wait
Till my hair grows back.
May 4, 2016 at 10:21 am
Reblogged this on The Voice Of My Conscience… and commented:
Truth!
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May 5, 2016 at 4:03 pm
Amazing!
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May 6, 2016 at 11:20 am
Wow. This really made me think. I am definitely going to be printing this one!
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May 6, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Very eloquent in your writing.
It’s been a long time since Iv read a well written prose.
One point though I don’t agree with – and that’s men who say they love a woman, and I mean actually actually love a woman, don’t love them despite their hair but rather inspite of it.
Cheers.
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September 19, 2016 at 5:55 pm
Inspite? Did you mean, irrespective?
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May 7, 2016 at 10:01 am
Stunnnnnnneeeed! Go on…..I will henceforth wait for your literary works ….. In all my humility, I offer my salute to you for your guts and creative imagination
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September 19, 2016 at 5:53 pm
thanks!
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May 7, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Beautiful poem Naina…proud of you..
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September 19, 2016 at 5:54 pm
thanks aunty!
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May 10, 2016 at 11:01 pm
This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing all the emotions we’re too self-conscious to say ourselves.
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September 19, 2016 at 5:53 pm
you”re welcome. I hope you do find it in yourself to say it too.
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May 12, 2016 at 5:20 am
Reblogged this on nirdishtha.
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May 14, 2016 at 4:17 pm
I absolutely loved it! Kudos!!
Happy to connect 💕
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May 15, 2016 at 8:24 pm
I love u and i love myself so much more now💯❤️💯💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯❤️💯thank u!
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September 19, 2016 at 5:51 pm
Thanks! I love you too :*
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