When Metaphors Fail You: Beyond the Poetry
In this powerful and evocative piece, poet Aarshia Sen brilliantly strips away the soft language surrounding the feminine body, confronting the deep-seated societal hypocrisy and stigma that metaphors often hide.
“When metaphors fail you”
She comes like a season,
quietly, without asking—
a shift in the air,
a hush beneath the skin.
There are rivers where no one looks,
petals falling in slow surrender,
the moon pulling silver threads
through bone and breath.
The body becomes a landscape—
tender earth opening,
not in ruin,
but in ritual.
An ancient rhythm hums low,
older than names,
older than shame,
older than every mouth that ever dared call it impure.
You love it here.
In metaphors.
You praise the moon,
the tides,
the crimson flowers,
the sacred cycle of nature.
You call it art.
You call it feminine.
You call it beautiful.
You are enchanted
when it is dressed in soft words,
when pain is translated into poetry,
when blood is renamed into roses.
But the moment it stops being a metaphor,
the moment it stains fabric instead of paper,
the moment it aches in a real body
instead of a pretty line in a poem—
you recoil.
Your lips curl.
Your voice lowers.
You call it dirty.
You call it disgusting.
You ask for it to be hidden,
wrapped in shame,
spoken of in whispers.
So tell me—
what exactly disgusts you?
The blood?
Or the fact that it belongs to a body
you were taught to romanticize
but never respect?
Because it seems you were never in love
with the truth.
Only the version of it
that looked beautiful enough
for your comfort.
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