PAIN OF MY SEX

PAIN OF MY SEX

To my amazement it was my mother,

My transporter to this world,

A grateful parasite I have become so no bother,

In love she welcomes me with no foul,

But this I wonder is her love?

To my amazement it was my father,

The only kind I’ll spend eternity with,

Without holding back I’ll endure the neglects by brother,

Anything from him I will take even words filth,

Uncertain of his love, now this is love?

To my dashed hope it was my brother,

The one I carry the same blood and relationship,

For him “they are my duties” so i go no further,

The men affair and the wordless girls – women despair,

I must look too stupid because I still love him,

My faith is shattered cause my sister is standing here too,

The beloved one I must love and my life should trail,

Beautiful heart yet her eyes drips almost without a stop,

Dissolved into the scheme of her being and the masked anger and pain she must sail,

She loves me; my certainty draws for my blood as I gasp to float atop

My eyes have seen enough,

“It can bear no more,

The freckled skin of ‘Nne Ogbaji’ says I will end up like her,

Her tortured fate to ridicule,

Her lonely stance and banishment by family,

But I accept this for me,

The cock crow in the morning does it as nature;

Can my being  be toiled with?

And my tongue  tied should be loosened by own will”

But halt, they all smile to see me torn apart?

For my blood to spill from my pride,

For my scream to be heard to the cities of Benin,

That smile on Nnedika’s face is more treacherous,

What causes Ada’s tears and Ifeyinnwa’s pained smile?

Ah, they are all fake; they know what it is like;

No! Rites to the doomed me begins,

White must become thick red to affirm my womanhood,

The chi wisdom overrides my father’s thought,

The existence of me should be respected,

This bloody act to condense affection for a natural feeling,

Yet my brother’s mating knows no bound,

He was bloodily cut,

Isn’t that circumcision?

The lie told by men is audacious and then it becomes tradition,

Deep into their eyes,

I must do what they fear so much their heart had become ice;

“Nne Ogbaji, salutation and edifications of your wisdom,

Cast me now also away from this rite,

Remember still that emancipation from this bloody cause,

Its eradication is eminent though gradual yet concise

My generation regards to the right culture will remain,

Women will rise, and ‘Nne Ogbaji’ will lead a stronger cause.

This strife for the right cause,

Excludes my mother; eyes shot out almost for death,

My sister; a victorious smile and frightened hug she sends,

My father, his wary and disappointed male stance,

My brother, one who was taught the wrong notions of me,

His replica in my version, the she version,

Outcast I have become,

But the world will come to their rescue,

Let maidens like me round the world,

Arise, march with me and make a stand to my community,

For your words will not have betrayed them, for I have,

Make them see the emotions torn apart,

Let’s stop girl circumcision Today

And I have learn it,

“Female Genital Mutilation”.

By CARA FAITH