When They Built a Fence Around My Fire
around my fire —
and called it modesty.
They said —
“Hide your flame,
you’ll set the world on fire.”
But I was already on fire.
Not from rage —
from being watched, touched, corrected,
from being told —
what a woman must never become.
They touched my smile
with suspicion.
My silence — with labels.
My clothes — with verdicts.
My body —
with scriptures they never followed themselves.
I was told:
Don’t speak.
Don’t sit like that.
Don’t say no so loudly.
Don’t bleed so visibly.
Don’t want.
Don’t burn.
But a fire,
even in chains,
is still fire.
So I turned inward —
and found embers sleeping
in my womb,
in my ribs,
in my forgotten poems.
They feared me
the day I stopped flinching.
I no longer folded
like apology.
I unfolded —
like revolution in soft skin.
Now,
I walk like a slow matchstick
dragging against the world —
not to destroy it,
but to make it see.
I am not dangerous.
I am just tired of being told
my fire is dangerous.
And if I burn —
I will not burn alone.
I will burn
the blueprints
they drew around my soul.
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This poem tells the inner journey of a woman who was born with light, energy, and passion — but from a young age, society built fences around her natural fire. These fences came in the form of expectations, restrictions, judgments, and shame. She was taught to dim her power, hide her desires, apologize for her existence — simply because she was a woman. But deep inside, her fire never died. It smoldered quietly beneath her silence — until one day, she stopped hiding. She stopped obeying rules that never protected her. She stopped shrinking herself to fit their image of “a good woman”. Instead of breaking the fence, she burned through it — not in hate, but in truth. This poem is not about anger alone — it’s about liberation. It’s the story of reclaiming one’s voice, body, and being — unapologetically.
Public Collections Containing This Poem
Other Poems By This Author
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She Offended by Existing
PoetSharda Gupta
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When They Built a Fence Around My Fire
PoetSharda Gupta
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