13 was the age I became “a woman”..
Uncle said those words…..
Papa said those words…..
Grandpa whispered them too!
At 13 auntie suggested we visit “the” place
The place to prepare me; the prey!
Auntie said I was ready then…
Mama said I was ready too…
Grandma agrees too..
To the market their preying eyes follow me
To the river, their preying eyes follow me
Their eyes… then hands prey on me…….
I have become their prey until I am passed on to the vulture!
By Susan McMillan
For girls that are married off young because of tradition.
Rhythm In Life 
I cannot even begin to imagine… 😕
This is real to so many young girls that have no voice to speak out. It’s sad and daily my heart breaks for them. The world ought to know and act against these kind of acts.
I couldn’t agree more. Is it STILL looked upon as an ‘expected’ tradition?
Usually fathers think of their daughters as their “cows” because cows are the most commonly way of “paying” off a bride; disguised as bride price. This is in addition to hard cash that is paid. As soon as girls start developing features that adolescents have, the elders notice quickly!. Even though times are slowly changing, the cry still lives on to this day.
So hard to even imagine that this is still going on today. Is this openly practiced?
Yes it is still going on and society has normalized it. Literally when a little girl is born, family will say it’s “cows or sugar”. All these are some of the dowry items when she is married off. My dad never did the official dowry exchange but a cow and a goat were exchanged. Fathers will ask for 20 heads of cows and more…
wow. Thats just hard to understand, having grown up in this culture.
And then the hawk and the eagle stretched forth their talons and rescued me.
Love you Steve. Thank you for stopping by. Poetry book by Sue coming soon….
This is so powerful and shockingly-illusrtative of oppression and appropriation….our world is in need of souls who rail against such atrocities….thank you for using your gifts to fight the good fight!
Thank-you so much my friend. When I see such oppression, I know I would want someone who could to speak up for me if I were being treated that way.Thank you again 💞
My pleasure 🙂
Hard hitting post! Great take!
Thank you dear. It’s reality to so many young girls/women. Thank you for stopping by 💞