Women spend the afternoon squatting on the porch, <br /> picking lice from each other's hair. <br />They spend the evening feeding the little ones, <br /> lulling them to sleep in the glow of the bottle lamp. <br />The rest of the night <br /> they offer their back to be slapped and kicked by the men of the house <br /> or sprawl half-naked on the hard wooden cot. <br />Crows and women greet the dawn together, <br /> the women blowing into the oven to start the fire, <br /> tapping on the back of the winnowing tray with five fingers <br /> and, with two, picking out the stones. <br />Half their lives women pick stones from the rice. <br />All their lives stones pile up in their hearts, <br /> no one there to touch them even with two fingers.<br /><br />Taslima Nasrin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/another-life-14/
