photo by Isaak Alexandre Karslian for Unsplash.com
WITH LOVE TO OUR SISTERS IN AFGHANISTAN
a poem
by Siobhan Fitzpatrick
Ocean falling into sky
sharia cries
where are the women?
where are the girls?
Erased from sunlight
visages obscured
preferably a burqa,
a hijab will do.
Your gentle
soft curves
elicit violent fear,
passionate hate.
Why?
Drip
Drip
Drip
leaks misogyny,
infiltrating polluted waters
of cowards.
Virility’s dead
when a flower
with a voice threatens.
You betray
Your mother,
Your daughter,
Your sister,
Your wife.
-Save your prayers-
Gone,
their pretty faces,
their sweet smiles,
any memory of a woman.
Know this, sister,
you are not forgotten;
you live in our hearts.
Greedily
they steal your hope
-they cannot steal your soul-
Like the Hindu Kush Mountains
you stand majestic and strong,
no amount of black and blue cloth
can hide your greatness or obfuscate your truth.
copyright@SiobhanFitzpatrick