The Walls of Fort Bikaner

This is the darker side of Henna which so few know. Worse yet is those today who meet such a fate burned at the hand of his mother.

They paint us up as we are bound

Intricate patterns once faded, we

Silently serve our maharajahs side

He’s simply a man, but 4^th wife, 5^th, even as 6^th

It would be simpler to be his concubine

Because in the end our hands henna dipped

Hand-print upon the barren stone wall

The only trace left that we existed

Our Legacy up in flames upon the Pyre.

Reviews

[Horizon K.]

Vivid and haunting imagery, this scene of despair, of henna dipped hands asking remembrance, a meaning for their lives from a stone wall.. A painful reminder of how women were and still are treated throughout the world, just an extension of some man, their lives no value on their own...

[DCT ponderings]

Yes. We romanticize so many things in this world. I was ready a book on the darker side of henna and as of late there are too many stories of the mistreatment of woman. There is so much more to do to stop the atrocities. Thanks for the review.