TATTOOED

While they asked for pens

she stared on

The spent nights grasping the history

History  of a country they never lived

they may never even know

she wondered how that determined her future

she had been forced into a life she didn’t want

so she asked for ink and paint.

 

while they asked for books

and kept flipping through pages

of a system that had arrested them

enslaved them because society dictated,

she asked for a canvas and her body

imagined what a life with expression felt like

a world with no harsh judgement smelt like,

a society where children were allowed to grow,

be who they want and find their passions

a village of self discovery

where religion didnt dictate what the law said

a home full of grace and free will

where women were not owned

and children were not goals

where marriages werent the ultimate

and education was free….

 

she turned her body into a canvas

with her legs cuffed and heart-broken

her speech oppressed and her choices discarded

she painted and covered her body in ink

tattoos scarring one after another.

her heart bleeding from the pain

her eyes sinking with depression….