Little tradition based on folk art and literature
Now surpasses the elite tradition in Vedas
Fah lah lah lah where dowries are often given back.
Where the Raksha Bandhan festival originated
Now celebrated on Full Moon day of Shravana
Sisters express devotion to their brothers
Their sworn protectors for life
Fah lah lah lah a festival steeped in tradition.
By placing shoots of barley on their heads
or tying tassel plums of thread on their wrists
Domestic priests of Kishan Garhi utter a blessing
For which they are rewarded with cash
Fah lah lah lah Where is my brother’s rakhi?
Sisters are brought back to village of origin for ceremony
They can honor a voluntary kin if they have no brothers
Categories:
dowries, travel,
Form: Prose Poetry
Andromeda was a beautiful queen,
First with love and then hate she was consumed.
When she found out her lovers, love was fake
He did not love her, but her wealth and beauty,
Parading with her at parties, bragged about her dowries.
She needed a man who wants to be a true friend.
Not a fake knight who bragged about all the battles he fight,
Or all the wars he won, that’s not what she want
So she devised a plan, dressed her like a man.
She went to his night club, to see,
If it’s true, that with other women he cheats.
She drew her gun, and shoot between his eyes,
For he deserved it, for all the lies.
As soon as she was done, she disappeared into the crowd,
No one could hear the music was too loud.
At home she waited on the message.
Bereaved she cried, her lover died.
No one knows who shot him death,
They think it’s a man with a black hat.
Andromeda: “ruler of men” (meaning)
Took sweet revenged.
Categories:
dowries, beauty, bereavement, conflict, hate,
Form: Rhyme
if veins pulsed with liquid gold
we'd be lucky to last one night
victims to pyrite hearted souls
who'd suck us dry before first light-
if eyes and tongues were made of gems
they'd soon be plucked for prophet
by bands of blind and greedy men
leaving mimes chained to purple sockets
if our arms and legs were made of ivory
we'd be cornered then quickly quartered
by hoards of desperados and poachers
for the sake of filling godless dowries
if souls were woven from emerald
and hearts made of glowing rubies
they'd pillage then refill with emptiness
and echo the walk of the walking dead
thank god testicles aren't made of pearls
Categories:
dowries, anxiety, appreciation,
Form: Rhyme
I‘ll never find a perfect woman,
Than the one I have.
Tranquil my heart all moments,
Pompous me real then and next!
Kind, patient and supportive,
Strong, courageous and classy,
I paid a little dowries to have her.
Two male goats and a drum of brew
She never akin to that lone,
But wasn't Lucas’ ever!
For the clan and family sought,
As appreciation for perfect woman!
© Lucas Mkude.
07/02/2013
Categories:
dowries, wife,
Form: Free verse
The mourning sun struggled to shine
over the good earth
longing for uprooted seeds,
O-Lan’s second bamboo shoot
harvested far too soon.
The eighth page of
my American newspaper
casually mentions
Sixty Million
Missing,
as is our rage.
Silent choruses
of Asia's daughters
during this thirty-year long
monsoon of tears
cry out in unison:
Was gender our only crime,
or was it the cruelty of order?
(to form an even
more perfect union,
one child-no second chance,
second child-no first chance.)
Inhuman actuaries
compute the
fair market value of
rare Punjabi jewels as
the opportunity cost
of their ultimate dowries,
while surplus men pine.
O blind new world
proud of its
amniotic intelligence,
so unaware of the
consequences of
unnatural selection,
last night I dreamt
Heaven’s narrow gates
welcoming millions
scarcely born,
its vast expanse
unable to contain
our aggregate guilt,
the billions of us who
remain.
Categories:
dowries, daughter, death, loss,
Form: Free verse
Gender inequity thought harmless, normal,
causes gendercide in dark alleys less formal.
In India, China, and Pakistan
Girl children when born are killed out of hand.
Still wet from the womb and with no regret,
they are poisoned or starved, seen as a debt.
The cost of their life’s enormous dowries;
for in parts of our world they’re property.
Sold if they’re lucky to live as chattel
closed in houses less valued than cattle.
Equality denied by fathers, sons
new prostitutes formed by girls on the run.
What of the gender equity crisis I say
the twenty-first century, still this way?
Categories:
dowries, childhood, daughter, death, education,
Form: Couplet