Propped Up

Propped Up

Unlike their women who were kept hidden

from the society in which men, 

though named as their protectors

were also their oppressors, 

she sat Indian style on the straw mat

in a room of that palatial house of mud.

With legs tucked under, feet

exposed as if they were shy, 

and girly-giggled that she thought

was lost and gone forever,

she wondered how her spirit

could ever live -  if she was 

sprawled on the mat, 

propped by big pillows to hold her up, 

imprisoned by the mud house that held her back. 

Just like her, many women in that society, 

longed to break the chains 

of minor guardianship,

of pseudo protection,

of blatant oppression.

But first, though difficult to do,

patriarchy must come tumbling down.