Best Poems Written by Tanisha Chawla

I Am a Woman

I am the grass
on a windy day,
held back
by its own roots.

i am a horse
with blinders on its eyes,
you use me
to feel powerful.

and i connive 
to the fiction
that you are stronger,
better.

because of you
i think about the length of my dress
and nod when they say
i should talk less.

and I accept 
the suffering
because I know
you suffer too.

I remember,
you use to like dolls
when you were young
and innocent.

you use to
not cry secretly
away from the eye
like you do now.

then why am I
the only one fighting?
it is not a battle of the sexes,
after all.

so i declare,
I am not powerful like you,
for power is not 
domination.


that i am not 
the epitome of beauty,
for beauty is not 
unrealistic standards.


i am not well mannered 
like the aunties,
for manners is not
obedience.

i am, however, a demon
ready to be unleashed,
held back momentarily
by the chains of patriarchy.

Copyright © Tanisha Chawla | Year Posted 2018