Night Walkers

To appease the women, 
the government decided 
all men should stay at home at night. 

Nights are for sisterhood. 
Nights are for our bar hopping, 
tequila after tequila – shot after shot
until we forget the whole world. 
Nights are for us, child-bearing people
who forget ourselves just to please all. 
Nights are for all the hobbies we missed: 
book after book, painting after painting, 
film after film. 
Nights are for us, daughters of the moon. 

I watch my husband sleep soundly
before I leave to wander the streets. 
No one catcalls. No one is asking for my phone number. 
No man says I am a whore. 
Tonight, I walk free and alone. 

When I go home, he asks me. 
“How’s the moon?” 
And I say, 
“Even more beautiful.”

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This literary piece is part of Katitikan Issue 3: (Re) Imaginations.