Girls should always be calm, she’s been calming her calm,
Her feelings and emotions become calmingly battered,
Keep your cool and never be like parrots,
To be like a bee amidst the bee you desire her to be,
Bumblebee hem to a corner,
Hem hem, hum hum, she dares not be a talkative,
Smart girl grows and covers herself with a garment of silence,
Timidity takes the place of smartness.

The upper and lower labials are glued
Needle and thread, in and out the labials,
Stitching the knitting to have a perfect close up,
River of red wine flows and rolls down her thighs,
Voiced voice voiceless, hum hum, hem hem, in place of a roar,
Infibulation keeps her in check while her male counterparts
As free as air whatever pleases he can enter,
In and out, center.

You cage, squeeze, and suppress her like bread,
She leaves your roof to room another’s roof,
Far from your reach of dos and don’ts,
She unmasks and makes the world discovers her content,
You wonder why such a well-raised child changes in a jiffy,
She’s being masking it all the while,
Now, there’s a chance to spread her wings like the birds of the air,
And enjoys her freedom as air.

You keep travelling back, living in a dark age,
The reason she gives you a girl but you demand she gives a boy,
I wonder who first gives the girl before she gifts you the girl.

Your eyes pierce through her clothes and skin,
Analyzing her flaws,
The flaws you never realize for once make her flawless,
‘She looks like a pig’, you muttered,
Your belly is filled with an ocean of water,
Yet you desire an hourglass fragrance figure,
Until you learn to accept people as they are,
You’ll never be satisfied.

They aren’t meant to make the pain plain,
Which sounds like a man isn’t a human,
Tell me, are feelings gender-based?
Your harmful expectations have exposed many to undisclosed upshots,
They turned bald as their undisclosed close feed on them like a louse.

There are always reasons to cry out,
I raise my voice and cry out today,
To live your life and permit me to live as I wish,
To permit her to live the best life she desires,
To let him be and release his tensions.

Voice your voice today and break the stereotype
For generations to come never to
wonder where they lost their voices.

Martha Mayowa Ojesanmi

I’m Ojesanmi Martha Mayowa, pen named ‘MarthadtMatters’. I’m a teacher, poet and a content writer. I’m Privileged to co-author two contemporary anthologies titled ‘Silver Mist’ and ‘Misty Halos’. I write with a burning desire to heal and to be healed.

You can read my blog at Healing For My Soul