We have not asked God anything
but a ceiling and some good children.
We are alive with no mouth, no question,
and have not asked voice.
Nothing will be changed,
we are the un-uprising women

There are several years
we have talked so much to the vagina.
There are several years our identity
has been twisted into the skirt.
There are several years in the kitchen
we have pounded water in mortar.

Our heart is a hidden mine beneath the ground,
and our body, a scene of war of…
We heard the blood from the tape,
and cried at the background of the music of…
No one has asked herself:

“Why have we been heavy-hearted for ages?”

The ceiling is getting wet slowly.
The children are leaving home.
We are living in our body,
as if in a foreign land.
We are women sitting in nothing,
Staring at death, desperately!

 – Pounding water in mortar: Persian slang implies doing a purposeless job

–  Tape and Sanitary Pad have same word in Persian.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari

Translated by Hossein Fallah