Today, We Celebrate — Tomorrow, We Will Make Sure

A poem on International Women’s Day

The image is created by the author on Canva.

Not every girl likes pink.
Her favorite could be
green, white, yellow,
or even blue.

Not every girl dreams of tiaras.
She might dream of the stars,
of building bridges, saving lives,
or breaking records.

Not every girl plays with Barbie.
She might love racing bikes,
climbing trees,
or hitting sixes on a cricket field.

To succeed,
she doesn’t need
long, silky hair,
a slender waist,
and fair, glass-like skin.

If she did,
could we see
Simone in the Olympics,
Marie Curie in the lab,
Gitanjali Rao in STEM,
and Amelia Earhart in Aviation?

She is just her intelligence,
as the space queen
Kalpana Chawla said.