Prisha Khimavat

This is part of a writing challenge. Read more about it here.

There are so many times in our lives that we do something for the first time. It could be something that we had no desire to do and were forced into, something that just happens out of the blue, or something that you’ve waited years for and it finally falls into place.

Today, I’d like to celebrate and share about one such first in my life.

A few months ago, I was walking to class when I saw a flyer about a “Poetry Under the Stars” event that my university’s writing society was holding together with the writing clubs from a few other universities. On pure instinct and whim, I scanned the barcode on the flier and signed up to perform. I had no piece I wanted to share, no idea what the requirements were, or what the event really was. But I put my name down anyways, and a few days later I was called in for an audition. I stayed up the night before, wrote my piece, adjusted it and went in for my audition. I passed that, and then there were a few rehearsals and before I knew it, it was the night of my first poetry reading. It was a phenomenal experience and I most definitely enjoyed performing. To be able to perform my own work was an experience beyond anything I could have imagined. This is the piece I performed that night, and it’s one that is extremely close to my heart.

The Curse

Braving through hours of labor,

She birthed a beautiful baby.

But rather than the sound of first joy,

The voice of disappointment greeted her.

Disappointment at her gender

Anger at the mother,

She should have known right away,

It was a curse to be a girl.

A few years went by,

As she was being tucked into bed

She was told stories of

Handsome knights and damsels in distress

But she didn’t know then 

That the saviors are often the villains

She didn’t know then

It was a curse to be a girl

A little while later

When she was playing tag with her friends

She got tagged a little more often than others

“You run like a girl” they said.

She laughed and nodded

She didn’t know that was an insult

She didn’t know they meant her harm.

She didn’t know that

It was a curse to be a girl.

One day she got into a fight

With her brother

He pulled her hair and called her names

She yelled back at him and got slapped for it.

Because girls don’t raise their voice,

She couldn’t understand why there was a difference

She couldn’t understand why different rules applied

But she didn’t know yet that

It was a curse to be a girl.

A few years later

Mother Nature ran her course 

Her blood stained clothes

Were hushed and hidden

Her pain undermined, 

Her experiences invalid.

A monthly nuisance made worse by society

She was beginning to understand

It was a curse to be a girl.

Soon, responsibilities were divided

She was expected to cook and clean

And do all the other chores

While her brother sat on his ass

Doing nothing more.

She’d started to see it then

The injustice of it all

But that was her role

At least that’s what she’d been told

What a pain in the ass

What torture it was

It truly was a curse to be a girl

She walked down the street

Men jeering and yelling at her.

Disgusting, horrifying things

She ran away, scared for her life

But if only she’d known

The ones she should’ve been scared of 

Were those she knew and trusted

Uncles, teachers, cousins. 

Bosses, and co-workers.

Men in power. 

Men close to her.

Used and abused. 

Degraded and humiliated.

Silenced. 

Maybe that’s why no one ever told her

That it was a curse to be a girl.

One fine day, her parents decided

After years of never talking to boys

It was time for her to spend her life with one.

Marriage.

Choice-less, voiceless

Dressed in her lost hope

Adorned with her broken dreams

The life she never owned

Now, sold to another.

The only thing that was still hers was 

The curse it is to be a girl.

Years later, she braved through hours of labour

And birthed a beautiful baby.

She shut the door to the voices of disappointment

And greeted her baby with the sound of joy!

Though she had lived a curse of a life.

Though the world had not changed its ways,

She wouldn’t teach her daughter 

That it is a curse to be a girl.

No.

She would show her daughter

What a blessing it is to be a girl. 

~ Prisha Khimavat ~