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caferati
A collaboration over too much coffee.
coffee and pen

08 February, 2005

Prejudice

In this place
Only boys
Are allowed to flunk.
Girls
Are supposed
To get a degree
And get married.

It is a sin
For a girl
To bunk classes,
To drink coffee,
To walk alone,
To walk in a group,
To walk at all.

Girls with legs
And wheels
Have a character
Called “fast”.
The speed depends
On mode of transport,
Is inversely proportional
To hair length,
And directly
To the number
Of male friends,
Remaining factors
On state borders
And bank accounts.

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1 Comments:

Blogger khuto said...

everyone must be busy writing clerihew's -
- or else why is this poem languishing without
comment since yesterday!

I really like the bit about fast girls...
The heading prejudice is perhaps a bit
prosaic...

This reminds me of some poems by
Bengali women - e.g. this one by
vijaya mukhopadhyay:

not you, Puti

the weight of the worlds problems
don't have to weigh you down, Puti.

should India make the bomb?
will America leave Vietnam?
signature campaign against automation
Puti, these worries aren’t for you!
bathe, freshen up, oil your hair and knot it
in a bun with a Malati flower. Lightly on your face
pearl talcum powder, a present from your aunt.
paper-soot bindi. in these rains
that dark green sari
looks good on you.

Puti, at this young age
I can't bear to see
that solemn owl face
isn't this a bit much all this -
what do you know of coalition politics?
and the Peking purge -
how does it matter to you? Your job
is to see that you and your family
get its share. That you have oil
for the lamps in the evenings.
remember,
you have to raise a family–
this wild prancing around,
does it become you? Shame Puti!

====

Also, the poem "simAnA" by taslima nasrin:
http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~amit/other/ut-sample.html#taslimaNasrin

09 February, 2005 11:38  

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