Boys will be boys

Boys will be boys, for boys, the days for fun never expire, boy don’t you know boys will forever be boys. 

But you see girls, girls will be wives, they will have to learn their way around the kitchen, for what’s a wife who can’t handle her knives, how will she cut ties with the woman she used to be and carve herself into the woman her husband desires, how will she stab herself three times, every time she’s asked, “when will you get married?”

How will she cut off her “ring finger” so no one has to ask her, “where’s the ring?” 

Boys will be boys 

But you see girls will be mothers, so cover up, don’t show too much, see you should be an example for your baby girls to follow, tell them, tell them that their bodies are only as good as the children they bear and if they can’t baear some, they haven’t lived, tell them like you were told being a mother is mandatory and if their womb never blooms it’s because it’s made of cement – dry, dusty cement that strangulates the life out of anything that dares to grow in it.

Boy will be boys 

But as a girl I was told, girls will cover up, girls will not show, for girls constantly swim in deep seas with sharks and showing off a little skin means asking for a bite and girls have to live with the scars, or die with the scars, but girls will not open their mouths to shout for girls asked for it, for girls will be told, “you enjoyed it too, as much as I did.” 

Girls will run, girls will become the wind when the darkness comes because girls are scared, girls are scared that the last voice she will ever hear in the dark alley will be the voice of a stranger saying “stop bitch”! And the last thing girls will ever feel is a body of a stranger pressing against hers, like she was clothes being ironed for Sunday service, in that moment girls will hear her mom’s voice, “don’t talk to strangers, babygirl.” And all girls must obey their mamas. 

Girls will be perfect, for girls can’t afford to be anything less, girls might give up her dreams in exchange for everyone else, girls will be caged and lashed at for desiring anything fun, girls can’t afford to have so much fun, girls will be stereotyped by society, society will make laws governing girls’ “temples” but boys, boys will always be boys.

Authored by: Beulah Nimene

Featured Image by: Victor Nnakwe on Unsplash