Painkillers

By Tamizh Ponni, VP

PROMPT — The way I see it ...

A spoonful of honey and a glass of water

Follows the single gulp of Cyclopam

To put a gag on the gag

“Another month off the life chart”

Strips of bitterness since two thousand-six

Aunt Flo doesn’t give a damn

Just as my OB/GYNs

“You have to live with it”

“Manage with medications”

You aren’t special

This is every woman’s problem

Kindly suffer in silence. Thank you.

Hatred gives purpose

We start all over again, the new gyno & I

First base with speculum and

TVS for the third

“Having a child might probably help”

Emphasis on “probably” here.

“Double Income No Kids?

You deserve this!”,

Society chimes in now and then

My boss is too empowered

“Only the meek ones

seek paid period leaves”, she blasts.

Hormonal pills just pretend

to smooth my frayed nerves

And to boost the will to carry on

“We need more research into this!”,

the Keyboard Warriors fume.

While the laws of the world

are being rewritten

to control a woman’s body,

Inside the bathroom stalls,

tired of combat in

the eternal war that is womanhood,

My helpless self

sobs in silence wondering

Isn't the present scary?

More than the past or future?

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Tamizh Ponni, VP is an ambivert who loves to express her skills through literature, visual arts and music. She has worked as an IB educator for 7 years and is currently pursuing her M.Tech, PhD integrated course in Data Science. Tamizh sees learning as a never-ending process and technology integration gives her an interesting dimension to knowledge acquisition and skill-building. Her stories were featured in 2 anthology books, Mia and Varna. Tamizh's articles, poems and paintings have also been published in many digital journals and educational blogs. She spends most of her free time painting, reading, playing piano, and watching documentaries/movies, and writing articles, stories and poems. Tamizh writes from India.