Boxes For Her Poem by Sukanta Mohapatra

Come let us
Put her in boxes
Boxes that we are building
Since the day she was born…

We built boxes around her
Slowly and steadily
Boxes strong enough
to contain a storm..

Boxes that are crafted
With walls having religious scripture
Cleverly worded by us
To stop her into stepping into our regime..

Boxes that stratified with
Nails called customs and rituals
Sharpened by you and me
Again and again over the time..

We designed boxes
To cage her freedom
Also boxes for her head
For her thoughts and dreams

The strongest box
Built to control her desire
So that she would be
My puppet, ravished only by me…

We keep on building
Boxes for her hand even for her womb
Boxes for her tears and laughter
So that no one can see…

We donot allow whispers of hope
And rays of light
She would try to break it
Would not she?

Once she would be aware
Of these boxes
She would destroy them
And end our carefully guarded regime..

©Sukanta Mohapatra..