A Dialogue Of Barren Women

SAMPOA: I cry today because I broke my virginity

At age 15. That's not why I'm crying;
I cry now even more
Because pregnancy rejects me.

AZINPOA: Then you must go and appease
The angry
And besieged gods of this holy land.

TIPOA: I don't know why you cry for nothing!
Do you need a baby that badly?
What do most newborn babies know ---
Than to think of nothing more than their needs?

All they know is: feed me, hold me, soothe me, nurse me;
I want to sleep, I want this, I want that. For God's sake,
We are barren women not witches!

SAMPOA: You talk as if you don't know the bitter sorrows
Of childlessness.

AZINPOA: It has happened to us without a hitch,
Because the gods want it like that.
I'm not perturbed, my nephews and nieces are my children;
What about those countless street children and orphans?
We can adopt them as our own children.

TIPOA: What were you thinking when you were doing those
Numerous abortions?
You flushed out all your babies long before
You got married to an unfortunate man;
Now he's thinking of a second wife.

AZINPOA: Hmm, today's young women must be vigilant.
We indeed flushed out some babies years ago;
That's why we must appease the gods for our sins.
We are not different from gunmen.
We killed our own babies;
Now we cry for them.

SAMPOA: My mother has eleven children;
She perhaps didn't flush out any of us
Like I did during my teenage years.

NAPOA: You women indeed made terrible mistakes
By flushing out your babies when
They were crying in your wombs –
The mourning will not help,
Keep praying to the gods and advise
The young women not to have pre-marital sex
Or at worst flush out any baby,
In case it comes crying in their wombs –
If not they might find themselves in this
Same situation years ahead of them
In their future marriages....

Waterz Yidana 

Author of Madman and the Drunkards