I was seven the first time I asked my family astrologer
to read my palm, and my grandma laughed a tired laugh
‘Run along,’ she said, ‘go play with your dolls‘
But it was the stars that had intrigued me
And I wondered what lay for me in store
So when I was fifteen, I asked once more
Only to be dismissed by Grandma
My future, she said, did not lie in the stars
It lay in the curve of my breasts
The sway of my hips
The kohl in my eyes
The colour on my lips
And I wondered if only the men in the house
had lines on their palms
Lines that could be read
Charts that could be spread
In accordance with the sun, and the moon
and the planets, and the stars
And I wondered what lay for me in store
Was it wrong to wish for something more?
To wish a world where I could rule
To prove that I was nobody's fool
But Grandma laughed a tired laugh
Women, she said, had no right to dream
No matter how smarter than men they'd seem
They have no choice but to tame it down
Like the dolls whom we married to stuffed toy clowns
In the play-pretend weddings we would organize
Never realizing or stopping to think twice
How close to life we played
But days and weeks and months passed by
And resolutes just got stronger
So the next time the family astrologer came visiting
I did not put forward my palm to be read
But instead displayed the medals I had won
The trophies I had bagged
Academics and sports, elocution and debates
There wasn't a single field I lagged
Proudly sauntering my way ahead
I'd carved fate lines for myself
This time Grandma smiled, her eyes were gleaming
She'd said girls shouldn't dream, but there I was, dreaming
She held my hands in hers now and softly cried
And I was only too happy that I had tried
To break the stereotype that society had set
for girls, women, dreamers like me
Who had once wished for their palms to be read
And were now hoping for minds to be free
Of prejudiced ideas, and gender inequality
That had been plaguing the world for an eternity
It took time for her to understand
But then Grandma took matters in her hand
and showed that astrologer the door
And that day what I realized, I say to you once more;
The stars can burn all they want
but they cannot stop you from trying
The planets, the sun, the moon aligned
cannot dictate what you can do
The lines on your palm do not chart the course of your life
So draw your own lines instead and don’t allow them to limit you
From trying, even when someone says
you can’t, reach out for your dream
For no matter how distant it may seem
There is thunder in your wings, darling
You are meant to kiss the sky
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This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter.
For more of my poetry, you can check out my solo anthologies of poems here and here.
1 comment:
Nice poem. The power is certainly not in the stars. Powerful verse. But why this title? 🤔
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