ManicDDaily

Honor killing

The knife slides in
with force.
She is thinner than he’s remembered,
collarbone sharp
as hook he thrashes
against.
Mind snags heart, but
cannot aim for breast;
only knife can look
past nipple.
Smaller than
he’s remembered,
with too-soft skin that folds within
whites of eyes big as
blade.
He tries to think
of flame, the veiled
body of smoke, the dried
bone of ash, but blood–
fountains,
in honor of
the righteous
fountains.
Why has she made him
righteous
do this
with force.

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I’ve revised and rewritten this older poem (from my book, Going on Somewhere) after seeing the first half of the wonderful documentary by Nicholas Kristoff (of The New York Times) HALF THE SKY – about the opppression of women around the globe.   (The name comes from the idea that women hold up half the sky.)  The second half of the film will be on PBS tonight.  It is inspiring/heart-breaking.  My poem happens to deal with honor killings, but there is plenty of other violence and oppression of women going on among communities of many different cultural and religious backgrounds – unprosecuted  rape, sex trafficking, neglect.   Awful stuff; important to know–and do something– about; helping/educating women a key to helping the planet on almost every level.

I am posting this for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night, hosted by the marvelous Hedgewitch, a/k/a Joy Ann Jones.