To Kill a Daughter
She killed me before I killed her.
--Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud*
(peach leaf blows across the yard,
across damp grass and soggy leaves,
free until trapped against a fence
and the branches of a dead rose)
To kill a daughter for the crime of sons
must require extraordinary faith,
to murder the victim
must take exceptional courage,
the determination of archangels.
To leave your grandson an orphan
in order to protect the family honor
with another brutal act
must call for a remarkable will,
the strength of titans.
Rain falls against the wind
much as it does any late autumn,
though perhaps heavier.
Wet and gray crowd inward,
no room left to find the good god does,
no room to shed tears for another innocent,
no room remaining for a grain of peace.
for a mustard seed.
Today, eyes dry,
the last tear shed.
God cries enough for everyone,
his sobs silence our questions:
Who will raise the infant?
What quick continuation of death
will be his fate?
What is the life of one more sparrow,
when a daughter's life is worth so little?
Do not expect god to answer,
his back turned
as he turned it against the Moabites,
his wrath hard
as it was upon the Midianites.
(the fruit's pit covered by the season's debris
lies barren as it will spring upon spring)
My mother did this because she does not want us to be punished by people.
--Fatima Qauod, 9
*Amira beat her daughter, Rofayda, to death, January 2003, the daughter
raped by her brothers in 2002. Rofayda gave birth in December. The
brothers are serving 10 year sentences.
I am not so naďve to believe that worse does not happen daily, but reading
this on the drive home from a visit with our grandson, this story struck me
more than most.
The homepage on hold until ???--- Writer's Hood, the best poetry on the web,
at http://www.writershood.com/ Poets for Peace.... ˇPoemas sí, balas no!
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