Bend Not!

Bent for eighteen long years

She lived in agony

Looking but at the ground

That was her destiny.

Crippled by a spirit

Her mangled body

Could not stand erect

Until she met her Lord

Who her bent form did detect

And set her free!

Of her terrible

Infirmity

Many women today

Are bound by spirits -

Call it sexism,

Patriarchy,

Misogyny,

Bent to see the ground

No chance to grow, or learn, or live

They remain bent

By patriarchal norms

Passed down

By descent

Our Lord straightened the bent woman

Long long ago

Yet in this time and tide

Women are suppressed

And kept bent and tied

To suit the dominators

God’s gift to us is liberty

It is not your decree

To not let women be free.

~~Crystal David John