The garment girls, walking together, <br />look like hundreds of birds flying in Bangladesh's sky. <br /> <br />Garments girls, returning to their slums at midnight, <br />are met by street-vagabonds who grab a few takas from the girls, <br />pushing their bodies into the girls bodies, <br />stealing the night's spoils. <br /> <br />Despite sleepless night, before dawn the girls again walk together, <br />men's mouths getting watery when they pass and spit, <br />the girls avoiding as many as they can, <br />eating nobody's food, wearing nobody's clothes, walking, walking on. <br /> <br />Like blind bullocks, they trudge ahead, <br />have-nots dependent upon the haves, <br />forbidden to enjoy the sky's rainbows, <br />fated to be thrown around, fingered, raped in darkness and fear <br />instead of bathing joyfully in the moonlit night. <br /> <br />Like hundreds of Bangladesh flying in the world's sky, <br />the garment girls walk on, walk on.<br /><br />Taslima Nasrin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/garment-girls/
