Cry with One Eye Open - Visitor's Poem

by Shamila Daluwatte
(Sri Lanka )

Oh dear sisters!
Cry with one eye open
Don’t close your eyes
See the world around you
Eyes
See together
Sleep together
Weep together
But don’t close your eyes
Cry with one eye open
When you weep
Over your husband’s death
See from your opened weeping eye
Whether in-laws have come
To throw you out of the house
To grab the properties that you own
Push you to a widow house
Push your children to misery
Pull you to a burning fire
To all my sisters
India, Africa
Where ever you are!!!!!
Cry with one eye open

“Cry with one eye open� slogan was created in Southern Africa to safeguard property rights of widows. Women lost their properties upon the death of their husbands leaving widows in extreme poverty. This poem I created to support women’s property rights campaign.

Shamila Daluwatte, Women’s Right Attorney and an Activist