Bottle of cayenne pepper, pepper spray,

Weapons my mom introduced me to and I scoffed.

You might need it someday she said,

What for? I interrogated

'I want you to be safe ' she said

Every time I go out I strap it around my waist.

I grew up, started college,

My dad told me, no night outs

I looked at him with rage

'I want you to be safe ' he said.

While on a family outing,

'Trust no one' my mom said

That's inhumane, I uttered

'Don't walk alone in the night'

My aunt said,

Why not? I asked,

'There are bad people,

I want you to be safe ' she said

While I moved out for studies

Perm for girls 9.30 they said,

Library closes at 11, I interrogated

'We just want you to be safe ' they said.

Now I realise,

All they tried to tell me is,

Honey, you are a fragile growing women

Big men might make a way and use my beautiful body as they want.

Now I realise,

We are unprotected women, not allowed to be independent as there are wolves waiting to feed on us.

Night outs, late night shifts, walking alone can be a threat for us.

Daily reports about rapes in the news,

Insecurity for women everyone talks about,

Is when I realised I could be raped.

When is our country going to be safe

When is the newspaper going to be free of news on rape?

When are the rapists going to hell?

When are people going to stop telling us we should be sober and what not to wear?

When are the women going to be independent?

When are we going to stop telling other,

'I want you to be safe'.