PATRIARCHY

Across

ages and classes

masters, rulers

friends and slaves

relishing some

tangible pleasures,

good wine, smoke

and music

The ladies

royal and common

the marginals in margins

behind the walls

looking from

the outside in

and the inside out

never brought here

other than

for the

forbidden pleasures

holding the

invisible facade

of tradition

men celebrate patriarchy.

POOJA SHARMA RAO ©2012

This poem will feature in the online magazine EI.