I Am A Single Woman

Why is `man’s world’ meted out to me so unfairly?

Is it because I’m vulnerable, I’m a woman or I’m single?

Why these dark, staunch, cutting discrepancies

That slash my soul when I start to mingle?

No, I’m not winking coquettishly nor am I trying to flirt,

I just want a sensitive companion, to whom I can talk,

As I inquire not into gossip nor lurid affairs,

But of a mind enriched with literature after a healthy walk.

For, yes, like a diamond, I sparkle………

I have no desire to elicit for myself pity or attention,

But being single, I am grateful for a roof, clothes and food,

No time to worry about the riches’ idiosyncrasies,

Nor beat myself up for being a woman, crass and crude.

I am the golden gender of the disgruntled and distraught,

The middle class women who accrue less wages,

But yet break their backs for laborious work done,

I’m grateful that as a writer, I just have to fill history’s pages!

For, yes, like a diamond, I sparkle…..

Being a single woman, I evolved into one fiercely free,

To be astute enough to make transactions with taxes and bills,

For a single woman cannot borrow money easily,

For society could banish her beyond civilisation's mighty hills.

Single woman, like me, should strike a chord of independence,

And the necessity of knowing one’s physical and emotional health,

For which schedules of diet and exercise should be in place,

Making me a staunch survivor – not a pursuer of bland wealth.

For, yes, like a diamond, I sparkle……….

As a single woman, I know I must be the complete package,

By facing inevitable loneliness and frustration by prayers to God,

And thereby eliminate fear-entrenched heartbreak,

And instead try to follow the footsteps Mother Teresa trod.

Every step I take is scrutinised, my life an open book,

I endeavour to be a “woman of substance” without fears,

For my every anxiety or stress factor is magnified tenfold,

Maybe the only things comprehensible are my heartfelt tears.

Yes, like a diamond, I want to singularly and brilliantly sparkle,

But, alas, even Harry was finally captured by Meghan Markle!!