Soft Armour by Eithar Almosibeah (Lucent Dreaming Issue 7)

We were put in a uniform of black.
Seen as something obscene,
like a dirty fantasy,
or a Playboy magazine.

A replica of Eve,
stealing Adam’s rib,
chewing Adam’s apple,
banishing him out of Eden.

They wore white,
posing as fake angels.
Chaining heaven’s gate,
creating myths and fables

about a god that chose Cain over Abel.
He rules with vigor,
and always enables
a fight that divides
an eye for an eye..

Their god created us as slaves.
To bleed their sons,
to clean their caves,
to always behave.

Flesh flies would think of us as fruit,
as meat,
as uncovered pieces
of succulent candy.

Layers and layers of pieces,
barely allowing us to breathe in.
We no longer had faces.

Hijab,
Burka,
and Abaya.

Those never worked as an armour
Soft.
Easy to remove.
They always had an excuse.

Boys will be boys;
they take away what they choose.

They told us to smile a lot.
To think of it as a celebration,
desired and sought
like luxury products

But girls will be girls too;
we’ll get loud,
crash our way through.

We will shed our layers of fear,
of mixed emotions and darkness
of forced-on politeness,
all of the “excuse us.”
and “do you mind us?”

In this Armageddon
They
will
kneel.

We’ll mould this soft armour
into
robust steel.

Eithar Almosibeah is a writer from Saudi Arabia who believes that words are the most ancient form of magic. With one publication already under her belt in Arabic, her poetry is finally making an appearance in English with her poetry collection A Cup of Chaos. She is hoping to reach minds and hearts all over the world in order to deliver one message: emotions are relatable across all boundaries. No language, gender, nor culture can prohibit the entwining of souls over one shared sentiment.

Browse issue 7 in full.

Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.