Excuse me, we are speaking!

Nida Shaikh is a self-proclaimed feminist and a writer who wants to stay on the right side of history. Pursuing her passion for writing, she has taken up English Literature hoping that somehow she helps society to be better than what it has always been.

Illustration by Zainab

Excuse me, we are speaking

Excuse me,
Sit down and hear me
Paint graffiti of my ideas
For you’ve covered up my art
With your name for too long.
Stay shut and let me
Scratch out my name near the graffiti
For they need to know
Who’s speaking.

Excuse me,
Hear out women,
Whose genius you overlooked,
Like you ignored your toxicity.

Excuse me,
We are done being the dancers in the background,
The triangle in your orchestra.
The faint cry in a war.

Watch me
As I make my words walk down a runway,
While you sit and clap on the sidelines.
Watch all the women
Remove the shroud of your words
And display the words they imprinted on their bodies.

Excuse me, we are speaking!

-Nida Shaikh

The views expressed are that of the writer.