An evocative dialogue between mother and daughter, on freedom, in this woman-centric, social awareness poem, by Saranya. An exclusive for Different Truths.
“What’s the antonym for freedom?”
She asked looking up from her ruled book
“Fear. Fear is the antonym of freedom my child fear that keeps you on a tenterhook!”
“How so?” She said her rote learning now duly challenged by
some fancy notion of poetry…
“Antonyms don’t co-exist,” I said.
“Where fear is freedom cannot be.”
“Tell me more,” she urged
Like the Freedom to walk those dark alleys cannot exist when I fear those night demons
Like the freedom to interpret the good word cannot exist amidst fear summons
Like the freedom to wear a skull cap cannot exist when fear of prejudice threatens
Or Freedom to don certain sacred threads can’t exist in the fear of secular judgment.
Freedom is to be able to shout out my belief without the fear of offending another God
Freedom is to be a feminist without the fear of a definition’s nod
Freedom is to be able to eat my greens without the fear of scaring your plate of meat
Freedom is to live in a haven of peace without fear of conventions bittersweet
Freedom is not having to find ways to swallow fear day and night
Freedom is to love without fear and live with all my heart and might.
“Am I free then, Ma?” She prodded further. “It’s for you to figure out little one,” I said…
“Fear does keep your thoughts marching in the pursuit of freedom in its flesh and blood.”
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Feature picture from Pinterest.com
Saranya is a multilingual poet penning poems in English, Hindi and Tamil. She is a social activist, freelance life skills and language trainer. She has two anthologies of poems. Her poetry is featured in reputed anthologies. She is the recipient of the Bharat Award for Literature (2018), Rabindranath Tagore Award (2017), and National Chanting Bards Award (2017). She has recently been conferred the Star Ambassador of World Poetry award at The World Poetry Conference 2019.
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