Myths used to portray how
Eve possessed the original sin
Along with her overripe
Pain, passed down to all of kin
Confess, tell me now
Is this the reason why
Women get born with shame
Stamped on our skin, shame
Buried within, shame
Dragged for decades
Like that tree in Eden
This shame shall never die
Banished, barely forgiven
As soon as you leave
Your mother’s ribs
You are subjected to laws
Of your father’s rage
The world where men
Decides on who I am
Should have been
Left as a myth

You wear the mask of kindness,
A porcelain smile, polished for the world.
Your hands reach for all but the one who lingers
In your shadow, silent as dusk—
Is she truly beloved, or just a name you keep?

She is a paper lantern in a storm,
Her grievances fold like hidden creases,
Tied tight as a kimono’s breathless knot.
She stands within the sacred rites,
A ghost among the living,
Draped in the weight of unseen chains.

But you chase reflections in silvered glass,
A puppet to the world’s approving gaze.
Yet the truth is not a mirror’s trick—
It bends, warps, escapes,
Like light slipping through a shattered lens

The bruises you veil beneath a painted smile,
Layers of foundation masking hollow nights.
Dark, pale suffering seeps through the cracks,
While red-rimmed eyes whisper silent prayers—
Begging, pleading for an unheard dawn.

"God, how cruel to silence a woman's cry."

But fate was inked in unseen hands,
And she faded—not in scripted sorrow,
Not in a drama where love rewrites the end,
But in the quiet decay of indifference.

It wasn’t just her war to lose,
But a battle rigged by a world that never listened—
A coin flipped, always landing on the rotten side.

___________    
She ponders as she lies on the bed of roses,
The thorns biting through her skin,
Pellucid elsewhere, but the stem,
Surrounding her, engulfing memory.
How did she get there? She does not know,
For this is all she feared.

The bear on her chest leaves her to wonder:
the caged giant now takes pity,
As it roams the lengths and strides its pen
Afraid it is of the petite beings,
And afraid it is of the fiery flash it brings.
Distorted creatures, partly seen through the iron rings.

Does the beast ever pray to be elsewhere?
She ponders as the trembling devours her.
The puny-beast is now the prey,
Behind the iron, it is caged.
What is the difference, she wonders, as one twins with the other.
At this breath she figures out the answer that wages war against eachother.
Both the maiden and the beast would choose the bear.
The irony of it—now she is aware.
Rules of mankind she is reminded of:
If a bear scares you, contain it.
If she swirls your lust, cover it.
Yet you cannot sustain—act on it.

As the cotton turns scarlet,
The world now turns aware.
But it’s not the bear she fears.
It is the cold-eyes that judges.
As they still question the lass—
That lies motionless as the wounds tear.
"The bruin earned it!" accuses the chap.
"It is cause of what she wears."
She ponders as the coldness embraces,
She lies as she sheds ruby crystals,
Eyes turning hazy, feeling dazed,
Losing feelings elsewhere,
The only thing shading this pain
is the sorrow-night’s weep ablaze.
As she reaches the gate that awaits.

As two ends near-
Them and you,
These biased questions may ascend:
How old were they? What did she wear?
How did they look like? Was she rare?
But dare a man ask another,
Why did you do this?
Was it ever fair?

Women being watched

when they enter, nervously --


cling to their handbags.

I am scared for my sister
And I am scared for my brother
The world isn't kind and we hurt one another

I am scared for my brother
And I am scared for my sister
Scared since the first time that someone dismissed her

I am scared for my sister
And I am scared for my brother
That some will teach him not to respect our mother

I am scared for my brother
And I am scared for my sister
Scared that I will not trust those who have kissed her

I am scared for my sister
And I am scared for my brother
I want them to be safer than many of the others

I am scared for my brother
And I am scared for my sister

I am scared for them both, I think we all know why
But I am making this oath, I will NOT just stand by

A woman, she’s a sun, who shines bright in the morning sky.
She also burns herself in this world to take care of her child.
She becomes the light in our life.

She is the one who gives a life of bliss to us.
Her womb is a place where our souls are purified.
She sacrifices her every need, to fill our life with all the happiness in this world.

A woman is the one who is pure like a holy fire.
She is as calm as a full moon in the night sky.
Her heart is like a garden full of beautiful flowers.

Her love for us is like the ocean, so deep.
She completes the life of everyone.
She crushes her soul , just to look after the world.

And like the sky which is large and wide,
Her kindness is something that cannot be measured.
She is as strong as a rock, hard to break.

She is the fire, yes, the fire
Which gives the warmth of love
But also burns and turns the hatred into ashes.
A woman is everyone’s strength.

She is the one who makes our life beautiful.
She herself is life.
And without her, this life of ours is nothing but an echoing void.

There she was—
the only woman in a room of men.
She sat on the side
and looked around gently
as she taped her hands.

I tried not to look at her too often,
but she truly was
a rare sight, a relic of sorts.

She stole so many of my glances,
I couldn't help but feel guilty,
and only hoped I was
the only man in the room
from whom she took control.

Then it started.
And as we were forming pairs,
nobody picked her.
Nobody wanted to be
either the wolf who feasts
or the wolf who hurts.

And I wonder if she will ever understand
that it wasn't that she wasn't
good enough for us,
but that she was too good.

They waltz heavenly within
Mango Moonkissed vines
Simply sublime
Their hems honey waves
To rose golden shores
And gaze at the exotic cherry blossoms
Of midnights candles stars
Intimate and afar

Dear love sigh to us more than roses
Mellow and sweet
as midnight sunflowers dream
For I am one in love
with fine wine women
and
The Vineyard stars

Reynaldo Casison

And their gaze waltzes
Exquisitely like moonlit
Hips of Bohemian women
That Salsas and lounge
Upon a luminous shore of love,

Soothing bonfires
Beside honey blossoming coves

Reynaldo Casison