Looking at my baby bump,
When they say, "it will be a boy",
what they mean is, they want
a champion with a peg.
whom they can flaunt in their
ancestry with a hidden wish
that he would light their pyres,
as though fire itself were averse
to a particular gender.
What they might further mean is,
if it isn't a boy, I would be
held against it. I would be
shamed, disregarded, and asked
to turn my uterus into a 3D
printing machine of hit and trial,
till it throws away a haughty
little brat.
Sometimes some of them say,
"it better be a boy".
what they mean is, I would have to
thrust my hand in my uterus to
pinch all the 'X' chromosomes
in my egg to facilitate 'Y' to bind
to 'X' of my husband's sperm.
What they'd further mean by it is,
when the baby comes out of my
birth canal, they would rush to
check its genital first, and
if it is what it isn't, they would
immediately mourn a life
that just bloomed.
They might even consider,
and reconsider what to do with
it till they run out of options,
and after that, at most,
they might let it exist.
Just fucking merely exist!
And a few, who aren't even
that considerate, would say
"It should be a boy" like it's
a statutory warning.
what the warning would
eventually mean is,
If it comes to that, they would
take me to a sneaky van
outside the village for an
ultrasound.
And if the smuggled Chinese
machine in that detects a
female foetus,
I might be forced to take
certain banned medicines
to force a miscarriage.
and if in any case, I escape
thebordeal to birth her-
There are always seasoned
midwives who could choke the
baby at a cue, or throw her
into the nearby lake.
At the bottom of which
the other baby girls might
just be waiting to welcome her
with better consolation.