Voice Of A Poetess
By: Azza El Wakeel
The oriental female has been promised
To be the puppet of a man
Her existence can only be achieved
By being someone's spouse
She's denied and considered incomplete
Unless she's married to a man
Or a semi-man
Live in his shadow in silence
In the orient, girl's tongues
Are circumcised in their childhood
Their voices buried in their throats
Girls in the orient are
Confiscated from fiction
Dreams exacted from their minds
Women creators in the orient
Are unfortunate, no place for them
Poetesses are ranked as rebellious
Unashamed, stripped from timidity
Outside the path of the herd
Some hidden under covered names
Others gambled by writing in day light
Revealed veils from their faces
Oriental women creators
Are accused of expressing their feelings
Of daring declaring their dreams publicly
Every poetess some men doubt her talent
That there must be a man
Writing or correcting her lines
Every poetess some men
Question her purity
She must have paid a price
In return of publishing her words
Every poetess some men search
The secret of her inspiration
Is she someone's wife?
Writes only for him?
Or is she playful?
Her words diffuse scent of adventure!
Every poetess in the orient
Sometimes encounters Semi-men
Controlling the publishing world
They invite her to access
The world of literature
Through the road of indecency
Ignore her in their offices as an authoress
Welcome her in their beds as a prey
Since she unleashed her fantasies
Didn't bury her pen
She's considered lawful
They're careless about
Her ideas and writing style
Not interested
In the inner music in her texts
But are captured by the idea
Of identifying her underwear
Sneaking to her warm bed sheets
Flirting with the off-springs of her thoughts
In the orient,
When a poetess reveals her feelings
A gallows is hanged up
An investigation is opened
With every love poem she writes
She remains a subject of amusement
Followed by spur and innuendo
And the same question
To whom does she write?
