The whore

Good girls marry strangers

and its whores who fall in love.

One welcome peck on my lips

made me a whore,

and father,

you broke your heart

with your ranting roar.

The puris and paranthas

dripping with ghee,

the red meats and whiskies

were all set free.

And I the one-peck- whore,

sentenced

to the attempted murder of thee.

His tongue fell deaf on your ears,

his skin too dark for your eyes.

Ranting and roaring you settled

to grunting and groaning.

Tapes and tubes in a curtained room,

drips and drops and prescriptions billed.

Yet the blood pumped slow,

till with belts and hilts

I blurted the vow.

You bloomed as I wilted

over a marriage fire.

An excellent catch-

his tongue, his skin, his kin,

all a perfect match.

Your broken heart bypassed

is mended

with your paternal duty

honorably ended.

But look into me father,

loveless I smile

a whore

with a stranger, bedded.

To Kill A Girl Child

Mother,
There are many ways to kill a girl child-

Catch her sleeping
in amniotic bliss
When anything more than a beating heart.
Suck her out or burn her hot ,
Cut her, chop her, limb by limb.
And if the writhing mother dies,
Its just another woman dead
Making way for a new one to bed,

But if like a roach she wriggles out,
out of your wretched, reeking womb,
choke her with a husk of rice,
or wrap her wet under a whirring fan
and watch her shivering off to doom,
or dump her in a faraway garbage heap
for lusting dogs
and loathing creeps.

But if bigger your heart and broader your mind,
Then load her with degrees and dowries too,
For her man will be as degreed as she.
Teach her, but educate her not,
Nurture her as another's child
And give her away over a crackling fire,
Then,wipe your tears and dust your hands,
Until you see her charred in another fire.

And if no fire will char her skin,
Let the fire char her will.
Shut your ears when she complains,
Close your eyes when she crumbles
And then she will learn how to die.
And if the wretch dares to live
Disown her from your hearth and heart,
Homeless, loveless she Will die.

Mother,
There are so many ways to kill your girl child