Suchita Senthil Kumar | Poetry

1. Prepare the soil

Wildflowers will grow anywhere with sunlight

We sprout within the mother's liquor amnii

and then live to bleed her ancestry.

Daughters will grow anywhere; we know

how to make homes out of cemeteries.

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2. Scatter the seeds

Make sure they're not too close because they'll end up killing each other.

The worst thing we can be

is to be like the other girls.

It's tradition now—a woman's downfall

is destined at the hands of another.

3. Compress seeds into soil

To achieve this, trample over them.

The footprints of harsh slurs

leave patterns across our chests.

We learn to see ourselves in 3rd person

and smear the mirror worse.

4. Water the flowers

They won't need too much water to survive.

When girls like us want to be loved,

we have to tear open throats

and drink it from there.

5. Remove the weeds

When the wildflowers have grown, pull out the weeds.

How do you differentiate 

between weed and wildflower?

You ask our mothers.