Shernaz Wadia, INDIA

Exclusive: Best of Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

THE SPHERES OF OUR LIVES

                                 

Out of this milieu of denials, humiliations and gender biases

We emblazon a new horizon of strength, resilience, intelligence

Rising from the sacrificial altar, we zoom into infinite space,

Our constant chant — a litany of female prowess!

Feathers spreading our wings will defy resistance,

the weight of injustice outstripped by the wind beneath

the night of our frost will awaken to the azure of a perfect dawn.

These spheres of our lives must not be construed in dreams

With fire in our bellies we will rocket towards the rainbow,

splash its colours on the humdrum canvases of our reality

Enlightened, self-owned, we will walk confidently through

antiquated checkpoints of forbidden frontiers; bulldoze bulwarks,

don new avatars beyond obscurity, beyond cramped roles

of mother, wife, nurturer, protector, anchor and many more

Exposed, vulnerable to centuries of neglect and abuse

With the burden of male dominance on our yoked shoulders

we build a cairn. Each rock a prayer for restoration of balance

Harnessing our own yin and yang we turn the soil

of old constructs and weed out gender- specific paradigms.

Someday every woman will harvest a fresh crop – mowing down

the thorny thistles of patriarchal restraints and sexism.

Respect, justice, freedom, empowerment must blossom for all!

To Shernaz Wadia writing is an inward journey. She has been published in many e-journals and anthologies. She has published her poems in “Whispers of the Soul” and “Tapestry Poetry - A Fusion of Two Minds” (2012) plus a second collection with the same title (2018) with her poetry partner Avril Meallem. Tapestry Poetry is a novel form of poetry writing developed by these two poets. Website:  http://tapestrypoetry.webs.com.

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Best of Women Poetry -2020 :: Setu, March 2020