Flesh

O four-legged domestic animal
You are surely a goddess.

In my primary school

I was told to write

A paragraph on you

I was given a model paragraph

To base my work on it

Instead I copied down

On my exercise ‘copy’-book

I made good use of the copybook!

Now, I truly accept you are Mother

Because many of my countrymen say so

And are angry

enough to lynch other Indians

To protect you!

O two-legged domestic human,

You are surely flesh!

In my childhood you were my mother

My sister and my school mate

You were a person like me

To be loved and to love

To respect and to be faithful to

Now I am shocked to find you

Bared and bloodied by my countrymen

Teased and taunted on streets

Ravaged and raped in buses

 Battered and butchered in bushes

Woman, I’m forced and compelled

To accept what I never imagined

That you are flesh,

You are nothing but flesh!

Xavier Bage

Mon, June 26, 2017