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!!!!!!