She was born with bound feet
and dreams too wide for a corset
Her cradle sang lullabies
in tongues no one let her write
A girl made of dusk and dust
beneath ceilings men mistook
for heavens.
she walked the blood-stained bridge
between silence and survival
Her body was not hers—
it was a battleground
a burden, a bargaining chip
She knew hands not by gentleness
but by what they took.

They called it duty
when they bruised her thighs
They called it love
when they hushed her cries
And when she bled
from places stories won’t name
they told her
that’s just what happens
to women who disobey
But still, she stitched stars
into her daughters’ eyes
With broken nails
she peeled hunger from the table
poured the last of herself
into pots and prayers.
She worked farms
with wombs still torn, from childbirth—
and smiled through it
so her sons wouldn’t see.

She yearned for books
but was handed brooms
Letters danced beyond her grasp—
so she taught herself in the dark
behind curtains
while lullabies played over the radio
She listened,
she learned,
she remembered
They told her education was wasted—
on a woman
But she educated the world—
one child at a time.

She wore kebayas stitched with sorrow
hijabs heavy with hope
bonnets and braids
that hid the grief of generations
She held her tongue
so her daughters could speak.
She walked behind
so they could run.
Romance was never all flowers—
it was staying after the beatings
praying he'd change
It was brushing her daughter's hair
while her own still smelled
like a stranger’s breath
But through it all—
she never broke
She bent, she bled,
but never broken

She is the reason we speak freely
learn openly, walk safely—
She is the reminder
How women should be treated
Like a rose but never wilts
That's how women should be


Erennwrites