A lady in love (2020)

A lady in love must be proper.

More china doll than woman,

a perfect depiction

of the effort to appear inhuman.

A lady in love is no lady at all,

but property of the man for which she “falls”, 

an object of affection,

a showpiece he hangs on his walls.

She is his prized possession, 

the effect of his obsession with his own vanity.

Any word she objects against him 

is a mark of insanity,

for she mustn't obtain her individuality

or risk the wrath of the patriarchal society

she is entrapped by.

A lady in love so is dangerous,

capable of such heinous acts

as speaking on her own behalf.

A lady in love must not be in love,

live above the human capacity for feeling,

listen with indifference rather than rapture,

manufacture a facade concealing

all that makes her unique.

A lady in love is not singular 

but an extension,

written off in signature from parent to minister,

daughter to wife.

A lady in “love” has no kind of life.