ARE YOU READY?

As if anyone is ever ready
She asks these questions with raised curiosity:
‘Have you learnt how to cook
And practised all that’s in the book?
Have your fingers tested new recipes
And dribbled with garnished sauces?

Have your feet dramatised the dance of brides
For the day you shall knock your heels in celebration
As you become wife and mother
To a man unknown and children unborn?

Have you learnt the ways of a man with a woman
The expression of endless love
Gushing like a flowing fountain
Before the break of a fresh first morn
Never beheld by even experienced eyes
The battles and wars, and resolutions
That turn lovers into fiery foes
That bring silvery snakes with venom
Too vexed to leave even a babe unhurt?

Have you found the place of in-laws
Family that fights to stay first
Not caring that needs are high hills
Even when your vest screams ‘us’?

Have you been to the quiet closet
Where a woman is a warrior
Where her silence is the loudest song
That soothes the air from day to night?

Are you ready to read between the lines
To peep at the backsides of words
And not be slapped season after season
By misconceptions and myopic views?

Are you ready to wear your badge
And never wind your way through
Before the seductive temptress
Who may dance in silk before his eyes?

Are you ready to submit to humility
And never be a crude dictator
Whose government shall oppress
And remind a man of his scariest dreams?

Are you ready to be ever ready
For the impromptu occasions of a day
Where you must be bigger than life
To flaunt the family fashioned by you?