Published on 01:35 PM, February 18, 2023

POETRY

Mothers of the earth

Design: Maisha Syeda

I sow the seeds, I nurture the ground.
I water the plant for bountiful sprouts.
This land is mine, here I fully survive.
When herbage abounds, I fully thrive

They come to claim and to deprive
me of my freedoms and rights;
of what I have brought to life.
They fake my true identity.
They burn me, they fake my cursed infidelity.

I bleed, I lose my sanity. 
I nurture and I give birth to all that grows.
I won't let anything rot;
I am the mistress of this field.
This ground is now my battlefield.

Come, if you may, with swords or guns.
Remember, I won't cry and run;
I will rise from the depths of the land;
The land that you have made into my grave,
stop you from taking away what's not yours. 
I am the mistress of my own.

Goddess of the land–Tellus, Gaea, Ceres, Diana, and Artemis; 
Taking the form of Amanda, Amy, Hannah. Leena,
Susan West Anna Baldwin;
Become today's Bellona, Athena ready to win.

Let's rise against the beastly beasts.
Save our produce from hyena's teeth;
Nothing can stop our united screams,
Together we will break the grass and glass ceiling.

This land is ours, no one can steal.
If together we stand with zest and zeal. 
Together we will overcome the ordeal
Together we can make this a heavenly field.

Rise O' woman! 
Let our screams resonate;
As we walk the fields on our journey to heal.

 

For the farmer women

 

Tasneem Hossain is a multilingual poet, columnist, op-ed and fiction writer, translator, and training consultant.