Unheard Voice Poem by Karen Jane

(I didn't sell my daughter
I was lying unconscious after her birth)
I did not see her face
I didn't hear her cry
My neighbors told me -
'She was very beautiful'
But my mother buried her alive. (I)

How would you feel
If this happened to your child?
My husband too warned saying
'Marriage stands annulled next time
If you deliver a female child.' (II)

My next was a female child too
And I had to carry her all alone
Into deep waters on my shoulders
I simply lowered her as I crossed -
A burden I will carry
Forever within my consciousness. (III)

I suffered a lot giving birth to a child
But as a woman I had no choice
To become a silent killer wanting to save my daughter alive
Being pushed into this abyss of criminality
In the matrix of everyday life. (IV)

Listen as I speak
Of my isolation and alienation
A fear constantly fragmenting,
‘The Hope' that helplessly hovers. (V)

Why a woman's life become
So cheap, expendable and devalued?
In the face of Women's Empowerment one still finds her
Being oppressed, denied rights and abused. (VI)

Enduring the penalty of ‘being female'
Marginalized to the extremes
You can hear an ‘Unheard Voice'
Challenge the doublespeak and deceit
That dwells the fabric of Development
And mocks at her misery. (VII)