22

By Latoya Ferns-Advani

I am not a woman, I am a victim

I am proud of the vision eyes hold

I agree to sell out under duress

Silence passions for a lasting caress

I am not a woman, I am an actress

I shy away from the penis I hold

I pretend its shameful, not the pain

Of giving in and not seeing you again

I am not a woman, I am honour

I am allure constrained by tradition

I fear happily-ever-afters delicate

And to unbroken hymens connected

I am not a woman, I am complicit

I am my own deficit of power

I assume submission, ask permission

To be your equal like its your decision

I am a victim actress in honour complicit

A moral schizophrenic, a veiled, glorified whore

The system abhors both my sisters and me

Yet I am another proud mother of patriarchy