The lights went out,
Sitting alone, My mind wandered
About the article throwing lights upon the crimes against woman.
Even after being educated, why the society is still so male-oriented?
My eyes closed then flickered open,
As I caught the glimpse of shadows,
That the little candle carved
On the face of the walls.
The shadows appears to me as demons,
Trying to pull me to them,
Drowning me into old memories.
As a child, I use to get frightened when lights went out.
They use to make me shiver with fear,
And hurriedly I used to run into my loved ones arms.
At that point of my life,
My naive mind believed..
That to be the worst kind of darkness - so fearful and traumatic.
I was tortured and made fun of,
Instead of replacing these frightening feelings, with love and assurance.
I was teased and was told that I fear because I am a girl,
I found it to be such a silly explanation.
But quite often I heard the same everywhere.
To girls who gets frightened of something,
Even boys were ridiculously told "Don't act like a girl".
I used to wonder what fear has to do with being a boy or a girl.
Isn't it just a feeling a child or an adult feels for different reasons?
A picture was created in my mind that it's a bad thing.
My heart questioned what was more bad, Being a girl or getting scared of darkness?
But as I grew up I realized, there are worst forms of darkness.
Darkness of heart, soul and mind,
Darkness in thoughts and in actions,
Darkness of injustice that differ men from women,
Darkness in belief and expression that never realizes the true worth of a woman.
The girl child being aborted,
The girl being molested and treated disrespectfully,
The girl being treated like a man owns her,
I wish there was a candle to fight this sort of darkness.
I realized that the only light that can fight it back,
Is our own inner strength and will-power,
We must not give in and should retaliate against injustice,
And be like a candle for ourselves and those girls in need.
I tell myself as I look at my reflection in the mirror,
I'm not a scared child but a strong woman now.
I won't allow any darkness push me into thinking I'm less than anyone else,
Nothing puts us down more than our own lack of self-belief and self-worth.
As woman, We deserve respect and not be treated like a weaker sex,
As a human, We deserve equality and not be judged and side-lined because we are a woman,
It's time men understand that they wouldn't be breathing life, if a woman didn't gave birth to them,
If she can bear all the pain and care for the life in her womb and bring it to the world,
She can achieve everything and anything.
She does not need a man who controls her and dictate how she should live,
She can achieve anything, if not put behind the bars of restricted thoughts and belief.
To All Woman, I would say...
Be A Woman and Live up to your name,
Choose a life you want to live,
Make choices that builds your respect,
Be with someone who believe in you, who understands you,
Get for yourself the freedom to do what you want to do.
God himself has chosen and entrusted you with greater responsibilities and power,
Don't allow anyone to change the definition of who and what you truly are!

(UnEdited because I want to retain the originality of what I felt while writing this poem. Please excuse, if any errors.)

Awwthentic~
23/09/2016