Kaikeyi

by Vaishnavi Patel

I WAS BORN ON the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.

I invoked Chandra, the god of the moon, Nasatya, the god of twins, and Kubera, the god of the north.

Perhaps we were kin, they and I, yearning for something unnameable, a place where we could stretch our wings and belong.

I did not wish to bring a daughter into this world of men, into a world that would silence her thoughts before she could even speak them. I wondered how many women had felt this same fear, deep in their bones.