The Meeting

Mother sits beside the black earthen pot
Fanning the dead embers to life
The wet wood hisses
A furl of smoke rises

There she sits day and night
Toiling, breaking not
Even as the burdens weigh
Tears trickle in two streams
Down a face lined by time
My daughters will be somebody
Ringing singing shall their voices be
Her tired chords sing

I stand by the white coffin
There she lay still
Go on the hilltops
Shout it to the world
Were her last words
Haunt you I will
If you keep mute
And she crossed over
To that place of undying sunshine

They all sit around the table
Watching with fearful eyes
Who has heard of such a taboo!
A woman speaking in public
We shall be scorned
Driven like stray fowls
Out of the yard
But even birds of the forest
Have a nest
I say to them
They fly high and far
But they finally reach home
We too shall find

Some leave with heads
Sunken deep in their chests
They can't meet our eyes
We are seated around the table
Our pulses beating in unity
We shall stab the silence

Blood we shed not
A war without guns
Our words the weapons we wield
In one voice
We shouted NO!

Pushed into the bush path at night
Bruised and broken, NO!
Burnt with a pressing iron
Chest oozing painful oils, NO!
Locked indoors the property of one
No life of your own, NO!

There came a silence
More profound than noise
Their unseeing eyes looked
Their blocked ears listened
Their clenched fists loosened
In one voice they proclaimed:
You too are human
Woman, you are free!