Deepa Rajan

Deepa Rajan (she/her) is a scientist and writer living in San Francisco. She holds a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Synapse, Toil and Trouble Lit Mag, Rough Diamond Poetry, and The Poet Heroic. 

Easy read of the poem in the image above:

The Greatest Rebellion

My mother always tells me:
“The best revenge is just living a good life.”

I think about this
while I sit on my bed,
my legs outstretched
in front of a generous window,
basking in the setting California sun.
The whole room is aglow
in golden crepuscular light
and so am I.

My leg hair is
black, brown, and golden
all at once in this light.
A soft downy halo
around my earthy limbs.

These little hairs
protect me from the sun,
protect me from germs,
proclaim my womanhood.
And I wonder -
how could this
glowing feminine fur
have once disgusted me?
How could I have believed the lies?

Anger fills me often these days:
Anger against the patriarchy,
Anger against individualism,
Anger against apathy,
but right now in this light
anger gives way
to Love
for my own
soft, natural,
hairy, mammalian,
human body.
I love what they teach me to hate -
this is my Greatest Rebellion.