Draupadi Speaks | by Nehal Sharma
Poem | Bonus | No Goddess Accepts Demotion
I was born where fire knelt to pray,
its tongues whispering my name.
No mother’s cry, no father’s claim,
only the hush before a flame.
They say I rose from ritual smoke,
a spark between the gods’ breath.
I say I crawled out of their guilt,
still glowing from their debt.
They called me prize, they called me wife,
rolled my name across a dice.
Five faces, one destiny,
what’s virtue but a game of price?
When they dragged my silence by its hair,
I did not plead, I did not weep.
The hall was tinder; I was air,
I let the fire keep.
They thought shame would make me ash,
but I am the ember that survives.
Touch me once, I brand your past;
touch me twice, I light your lives.
Do not call me pure, do not call me sin,
I am what begins when endings begin.
When Agni breathes, remember this,
his oldest daughter still exists.
I was not born of fire alone;
Fire was born of me.
And every time the world burns wrong,
I rise, silently, endlessly free.
Nehal Sharma is a writer and founder of the blog Mythology Meets Reality. Her work often explores how culture, emotion, and history shape contemporary womanhood. She has previously published with magazines like Roi Fainéant and The Chai Literary Magazine, and ranked 3rd globally in the Heartfulness Essay Competition. Writing is how she lives inside her own curiosity, turning observation into reflection and reflection into story.
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