The Time I’m My Period.

Posted byMoushmi RadhanparaPosted inWhat they said!, Women -as we are!Tags:, , , , , ,

Just the other day I shared a very powerful poem ‘Half World’ by a Telugu poet, and here I am today, sharing yet another AMAZING piece by a Tamil writer K. Geeta. Again I had to find the translation in English to read it, but here it goes.

The Time I’m My Period. (I am not sure with the title, my translation version says so.)

When the whole body is frozen into an abscess

When a private mount explodes silently

I make efforts vain to catch the pain in my grip

All of a sudden it gives a jolt

I in myself, solid becoming liquid

Then become a solid again

And then shattered to pieces.

Every month, having no other go

I transform myself into pain

Dead

Unable to plaster the wound that would’nt surface

Unable to grind the ribs into powder

Even unable to draw myself into a bundle of cosy sleep

Embracing the thirty-six hours of turbulence

Unable to remain a forced untouchable

Walking forward a few paces in civilisation

Becoming gasping leaps and sprints

Desiring to flatten the spine on the anvil

Toying with the idea

To bundle this bother with chains of iron

Again and again, once in every thirty days

Taking rebirths one after another

The period when crushed in gut-twisting agony

This period …

The problem does not lie only when people shy away with the topic, but even today their are many myths and beliefs associated with it. Not going into the details much here, I’d safely say that those beliefs should not be thrown on women, it’s on them if they believe in it or not.

Even today we have people who shy away with the topic of menstruation, and it is indeed a powerful poetry that I strongly stand by. Some people tend to take it so casually, never understanding the amount of pain that a woman’s body goes through and those hormonal changes which she is herself unaware of, in those days, every single month, almost her entire life.

Published by Moushmi Radhanpara

A bilingual writer, Moushmi Radhanpara has authored three poetry collections so far, namely POSIES and 03:21 AM –An Ode to Rust & Restlessness, and Resignation of an Angel. She is also scribbling an unplanned rough draft of a story as a part of NANOWRIMO 2020 and hopes that something might come out of it. She has also co-authored two books, The Lockdown Stories and Mirage so far. Her poetries can be found on her blog https://aestheticmiradh.com/ and a few other online portals. She believes in the fact that a better reader makes a better writer. Reading a 100 books a year is her latest obsession. She can be found either drunk on coffee or hiding away from everything and admiring the gorgeous sun.

43 thoughts on “The Time I’m My Period.”

    1. Absolutely! All the stigma and the superstition that is associated with menstruation is illogical and ill-founded! In the NGO I volunteer we have been working on educating the community folks we work with. I believe one day at a time we can come to a situation when the taboo is broken

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  10. Taboo’s…what are they really but fear. Those periods are as natural as breathing, but can be very painful, to which I obviously have no real understanding having never experienced them.
    Maybe they are small karmic bursts of suffering because of the transference into utter bliss in giving birth to such beauty in having a child and the love that this engenders.
    But then not all suffer their tyranny, is that pain but a body out of balance. We suffer so many other bodily things in this world, many from what we eat and breath, others from the genes they inherit.
    Regardless, and more importantly, may a womans ‘periods’ be gentle, smooth and swift in their journey.

    Liked by 4 people

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  15. The wall of stigma has started showing cracks and hopefully will crumble soon one day….the amount of pain, discomfort and suffering a woman undergoes and at the same time forced to hush up is so disconcerting….😑

    Liked by 2 people

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Your perception holds importance for me.

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