SHAMELESS

SHAMELESS


I was born a girl
in a discriminating world
In an unknown year
In a submissive culture

I am not alone
but lonely, my identity
threatened in every
breath I take

The battle within
honourable, subliminal
The burden weighing
heavily like the almond trees
we had, once blanketed in
bloom, now stripped and felled.
Malicious imprints upon our
livelihood.

In our colourful cosmos of
persian rugs and glorious garments
we exist in black and white.
I am a recalcitrant
who has broken the shackles
of slavery and inferiority.

I am a bacha posh
a girl in a man's world
playing shameless charades
against a shameful servitude.