*Woman*

I wanted to believe

That we had moved beyond the days

When baby girls were placed in box like graves,

Alive.

The days when a father felt no pain,

In burying a child

He’d refused to claim

Or seeing his broken wife

Whisper daily prayers and angelic names

Into a hole too small

To be called a grave.

I wanted to believe we had moved beyond that.

To believe the world had finally seen how-

Beautiful women were.

How God has curved our spines with his merciful touch

And placed the souls of children into our wombs

As a safe haven from the ugliness of the world.

***

But even now

Even today,

There are young girls-

With hair in braids and eyes like pearls,

Whose innocence is stolen by those who believe that virtue,

Can be found in the mutilation of something God has already crafted to perfection.

I do not know

What logic

Allows a mother to run a knife

Between her daughter’s legs

As if the evils of the world lay dormant in her 8 year old labia.

Nor what culture,

What tradition

Teaches that it’s okay

To maim a girl

Too young to know

That bleeding would make her a woman

And losing blood was our body’s way of

Thanking God for the children we will come to have.

***

I wish

I could have told them

That your self respect did not lie

In the tip of a searing knife

Or in the gut wrenching scream

That you release

Every time you realize

That you might never know

The pleasure of loving a man

Completely.

***

I stand humbled

In awe of every woman

Who through gritted teeth

And aching heart

Told the world

Of her eight year old self

Legs spread apart

and circumcised

Who told the world

how she was left

Unable to feel

And de-womanized.

But I swear to God

I have never known anyone more 'woman'.

More mother, lover and friend.

More guardian angel than you

Who taught the world

That blood

Could also break a woman

That tears made even angels human

That forgiveness

Makes the broken whole

And that a woman

Was the closest thing to heaven

This earth would ever see.

You see

I have found faith in you.

To believe that every broken girl

Becomes a beautiful woman

Who will one day

Change the world.

Farah Gabdon

Copyright © 2011