My Blood by Sangeeta Fairweather

I wish someone had told me

That being born a girl

Would mean I would bleed for most of my life

I bleed as a child

I bleed as a young adult

I bleed as a grown woman

I bleed as a mother

I bleed until I reach menopause

When I hear people say women should stop complaining

Know that we have paid in blood for years

We have made life from this blood

We have kept evolution flourishing

Through procreation

And when giving birth

We bleed until we are almost dead

With this blood comes pain and anguish

It hurts

It screams

It can break the mind

It toys with emotions

To the point of despair

Yet my blood is not dirty

It is life giving

It is not unclean

It is divinity

We are goddesses on Earth

There is no shame or stigma

My blood is my source of power

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“I trashed this piece because I was told by a friend no one will want to read this. It sounds way too feminist and woke, and there are enough poems on the internet covering this issue. However, I wrote this poem because I was angry, when someone close to me suggested women should stop complaining about periods and menopause because we all have to go through it and that’s just the way it is. This poem was written out of pure rage and also to educate those disillusioned people, that we do not suffer the same way, we all struggle on many different levels, so please do not insist we should just put up with it. It is not a weakness, but a strength.”

sangeeta Fairweather is a Writer and Poet from Buckinghamshire in the UK. It’s taken her four decades to find her inner voice, and now she cannot shut up! Writing is her therapy; it is her stream of consciousness. she is a speaker on Gender Inequality and is currently writing her first book about it.