Here’s a protest poem by Abha, on the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD), exclusively in Different Truths. 

They say
You have come a long way, baby.
I say I have a long way to go, baby.
But I am getting there.

I know
The long and weary path
We women have trudged for centuries.
I know the hard pebbles that have
Cut my tender feet and those of many
like me.

We women
of the soft mouth
And soft voice
have become forged steel.
Hard with the truth
of what has subjugated
us so long under Time’s wheel.
Putting our interests
before others all the time.
Today we will be first.

To walk
with skirts high, and heads high
is a hunger, a need, a thirst.
No shaming of us, our bodies, our voice
We now give you no choice.

We will
Not listen to demands, to cajoles,
To threats, to promises of any kind
We are women who speak our mind.

Today, we
Gather force together.
I know it has taken us a while.
But we are here to show the world
We mean business, baby,
And it’s been coming for a long time.

We will
Keep walking, talking, holding hands
Showing each other the way.
It will happen every day, all the way…
Not just on International Women’s Day.

Picture design Anumita Roy

#IWD2017 #BeBoldForChange #Poem #DifferentTruths #WomansDay #Baby

Abha Iyengar

An internationally author, poet and British Council certified creative writing facilitator. Abha’s story, “The High Stool”, was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. Her poem-film “Parwaaz” won a special jury prize at Patras, Greece, acclaimed at international film festivals. She received the Lavanya Sankaran fellowship 2009-10. Her published works are Yearnings (poetry), Flash Bites (flash fiction), Shrayan (fantasy) Many Fish to Fry (novella) and The Gourd Seller and Other Stories (short stories).