(Inspired by the CBC Documentary: "Murder in Purdah")
by Katerina Fretwell
#1
Gauze skin whitens your torso
black clots garrote
thin brown limbs
Life IVs up your nostril
Next day you're dead
After you gazed at a male cousin
your arranged husband's brotherhood
cleansed you in kerosene
missiled a lit match
half your body burned
"I did nothing wrong" your epitaph
#2
Young man in a filigreed fez
smiles on camera:
raises the rifle he aimed
at his wife's back while she
weeded the family plot
Jealous widower
after one year sprung from jail
his liberty cost one buffalo
Dead wife's ‘lover'
for looking at her
atones by pledging his own
sister: the widower's new wife
#3
Seated outside a women's
jail/shelter
hands inside your sari
you whisper your story:
Husband's brothers waved machetes
to sever your head
your defence raised hands
saved your head lost your fingers
Can't embroider bedclothes
cook or clean
safe in jail for a while
you learn to read
Inside your dormitory
photos spread on the bed
your eyes hook ours:
"My poor children – without me:
I only answered
a man's question"
#4
Couple elope then hide –
her family shot at her choice
screaming:
"He stole and raped her;
we want justice – honour killing"
Healing hiding begging
The West refuses asylum
Stalked by her family
the woman looks at us:
"Where's the crime in marrying for love?"
#5
In Pakistan's Islamabad
a human rights' rep fixes us
in the crosshairs of her gaze:
"Prisoners of conscience
find sanctuary;
prisoners of culture
lose everything"
