The Monthly Dues by Natasha Chebet Mutai

The dark days have come!

When I dread to walk around,

In school I can’t keep up,

Those days make me sick!

The red liquid keeps flowing,

Why can’t I just stop it?

Surging pain in my abdomen,

Every single limb in me aches,

Yet I have to work and read!

Mama struggles for me,

Leather she borrows for my sake,

I sit on the damp soil till dawn,

Mama pities me, she cries for me,

And I along with her, will relief ever get here?

In school the students mock me,

I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed,

This is too much - why me?

No tampon for me, no sanitary towel,

Nothing to shield me, to hide my shame! No one to protect me!

My heart aches for that day,

When I can dance through my cycle,

When checking becomes a vocabulary,

When the period of shame becomes the period of pride,

When my heart falls in line with natures phenomena!!!!!!