“Bleed with Pride”

Kezang Wangmo

Alaa…alaaa…a girl holds her stomach and weeps.

As every cell in her body bleeds,

Giving her pain compared to a heart attack.

Physically weak, she stands while putting on a mask of a smile

She laughs when someone talks

And makes the world believe

She is normal, yeah she is fine.

Everyone sees a feminine face

Filled with emotions, filled with life

Yet, she dies every second

While every cell in her body hurts like thorns

Pricking a baby’s flesh

Like nails hammered to her fragile waist

She wants to speak at the peak of her voice

But look how helpless that girl is

Deprived of her right

To bleed with pride, to tell the truth

As every norm in the society stands

Making menstruation a taboo

While making her feel shameful and helpless

Just because she is a woman who bleeds.

We live in a society whereby no one laughs when someone bleeds due to an injury. No one hides when a mother gives birth to a baby. Then why do we girls feel embarrassed and stigmatized just because we bleed from the body part that gives birth to a new life on Earth? So let today be the beginning we bleed with pride while proving to everyone that we are strong enough to bear all that pain while menstruating. Let’s stop feeling bad for something we are born with because everything exists for a purpose; a purpose that is sometimes blurred or manipulated unless we try to see the world with the eyes of different perspectives.