Photo by IsaaK Alexandre KaRslian for Unsplash.com
With Love to Our Sisters in Afghanistan
A poem
by Siobhan Fitzpatrick
I was inspired to write this when the Taliban, on May 7, 2022, announced something unconscionable: all females in Afghanistan must be covered head-to-toe.
Ocean falling into sky.
Sharia. Cries.
Where are the women?
the girls?
Erased from sunlight
visages obscured
preferably a burqa,
a hijab 'won't do.'
Your gentle
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,
Yourself.
-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
copyright@SiobhanFitzpatrick