TELL HER

As we warn the boy
against toxic patriarchy,
tell the girl
to wash off the toxins
that are in her mind settled.

Tell her there's no less
in the woman being.
Tell her being woman
is being human first
and being human fully.
And, so should she accept and insist.

Tell her,
because she's not less,
to stop being an object.
An object she has made herself,
an object she has made her body
to gratify another being,
to satisfy her rampaging wants.

Tell her
the world needs and cares about how sound she sounds
much more than how adorned she looks.
Tell her to invest her most in the mind, the inn where her sounds come from,
and modestly attend to her sight,
because she only really seems well
when she sounds right.

Tell her to withdraw
from the contest of "good looks" fad
and compete in the challenge of best thinkers.

Tell her
good looks is but the
byproduct of hygienic daily routine
not a manifest of addiction to
chemical and artificial applications,
and to be the best
is a matter of her mind's product
being able to compete
firmly and favourably
amidst minds' products.

Tell her
beauty only really lies
in the eyes of the beholder
when it must have radiated
from the within of the holder.
Especially,
When the world is to be your beholder.

Tell her
She's programmed to be a blessing
not just a spouse.
But the heaviest tragedy
to befall human is to fail
that programming.
Failure that is greatly caused
by the rush to be a spouse.
Tell her
to be given to being the blessing
and a great spouse she'll beckon,
and become.

Tell her
to neutralize that poison of nurture,
that toxin called entitlement mentality.
Tell her
She's entitled to no man's gold or gift just because she's a woman.
Tell her
to become a gift packaged by training
and the gold refined by studying.
That her title may be that
so coveted by every man.

As we warn the boy
against toxic patriarchy,
Let us tell the girl she's not less;
Tell her to objectify not herself;
Tell her to fill her mind much more;
Tell her what beauty really is;
Tell her she is mandated to bless;
Tell her marriage only has a meaning when it permits purpose;
Tell her to earn her respect
and demand not what she deserves not

Tell her consistently.

© Ayodele Ayanfe