Mother / India

you are not born a mother
you become one
it begins with a man
who wants
to make you more
than woman
less than man
give you a job
he cannot do himself
knowing
while you are at it
he will do
all that you are as good at
in his own muscular way

so you become mother
undermine yourself
to nourish a nation
while behind your back
they loot your gold
and recruit sons
to axe you down

till one day
like menopausal Kali
you decide to turn the bulldozers round
swear by blood
and haunt the cremation ground

let every well-wisher
take the trial by trample
first Shiva