Trump Card

Coming to think of it,

we all have one.

Right from birth !

Oh, she’s just a baby,

be patient,

they’d say.

He’s just a kid,

handle him like one,

don’t compete with him head-on,

they’d say.

Oh!

That’s just rage that comes with age.

He’ll calm down in a few years,

they’d say.

Shrugging it off.

He’ll be alright.

Just get him married,

that’ll change him for good,

they’d say.

Come on!

He’s working so hard.

Don’t add more to his plate.

Give him some space.

Oh my!

How long will you keep going on like this?

What are you, newlyweds?

Focus on the kids.

You’ve lived your lives.

And then finally…

Oh, poor man!

He is old and has no one.

Make sure he is fine.

Take good care of him,

the world would say.

Forgetting

that there was once a woman

who never got to use a trump card.

Or maybe…

she was never allowed to play

in a game that lasted a lifetime.

So,

who is the winner here?

The world?

Or the silence it leaves behind?

________________________________________

Author's Note 

Lives are lost quietly…

and people fade into the background of a society that examines every woman through judgmental eyes and biased expectations — yet remembers only the roles she served, never the life she lived