Lost connections

Friday Fictioneers

It is a recurring dream. I am in a mansion with large framed photographs of men with turbans and moustaches on the walls. There is an arch in the stone walls covered with bricks. Looks like it conceals an entrance behind it. The giant keys are frozen in time and refuse to reveal secrets. The … Continue reading Lost connections

Patriarchal Societies

Gerard sekoto- woman with downcast eyes

Your beautiful eyescarry a shame – it’s not yours Mirrors do not show flawsso accusing fingers can’t see theirs-it will take your eyes to seeand your courage to speakto tell themthey are tainted Whatever venom they spewThe underlying instinct is the sameYou dared to stay out of the chorussing their tunefollow their instructions they don’t … Continue reading Patriarchal Societies

Amnesia

youth smiled thro’ tightened expressionsof amnesia;made people wonderwhat the accident did to him. He had stopped digging into an unhappy pastevery nightand emerging years olderin the morning with no past to rememberhe farmed fresh memoriesevery day Quadrille #246

You know when …

When you struggle to reach up there and findThe gods have turned their faces away,You know it was an error of judgment—to trust the vision from afar. Between the halo and the face lies shadow,a gulf of silence no prayer can cross.The smile you worshipped dissolvesinto the cold indifference of apathy. Yet from that fracture … Continue reading You know when …

Patriarchy and Empowered Women

Patriarchy

A woman faces patriarchal judgment while caring for her terminally ill husband, challenging outdated gender roles and calling for change.

Line of Control

Slang conveys a lot about culture. One word I repeatedly heard while growing up was “advanced.” They meant to say "modern" or "cool," but the slang term was never used positively. (They have become ‘too advanced’ to follow customs.) “They” were the target of ridicule or sarcasm – You are not one of us anymore. … Continue reading Line of Control

The Chandelier

Who delights in daylight’s reflection— slipping from invisibility into oblivion? The chandelier gathers shadows, waiting for the hand that dares to touch its darkness. It glimmers with borrowed fire, lamps feeding its fragile glow from within. Yet the chandelier remembers— the one who measured despair along the trembling borderlines of light, to illuminate. Twilight is … Continue reading The Chandelier

Layered truths

The night calls out, wanting to take me in its fold. It holds dark secrets Patriarchy, injustice, un-blossomed buds, unfulfilled dreams, muffled voices Those voices warn me not to come in just to become another relic in a dark history glorified as culture. “Some of us lived in darkness, some saw the light but were … Continue reading Layered truths

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #426

Welcome back to changing seasons! Summer has hit us earlier than expected, and it is sultry, not a song. I like to think it has something to do with the heat generated on the world stage. But how does that matter? PROMPT #426 Here is a quote from Ayn Rand's lesser-known novel- We the Living. … Continue reading Reena’s Xploration Challenge #426