Afghanistan
thrown back overnight
into medieval chaos
women are always the first
to go Down
dirt kicked into the faces
of the lives they’d built
in streets only recently released
from an ancient poverty
Returned
to Suffocating Dark
9-year-old daughter sold
the Family All Important
will eat for three months
Father begs him not to beat her
as the man pulls her thin arm
pulls her into the car
to take her away
last year the 12-year-old sold
she brought more
she could work harder
and was closer to breeding
the Family ate for a year that time
one more girl
only 5
then what?
bittersweet from birth
mothers’ savage offspring
the daughters so rarely rejoiced in
except for what money can buy
so recently liberated
to Promises of a modern life
only to be betrayed
sold again
can they be saved
for what?
to Hope?
Hope
faint and Slowly unfurling
like a flag or a flower
then Doors Bursting Open
the Booted Feet of
the weapons in the hands of
Blind Religionists
the Old Lies against Woman
pouring like blood
broken dam of flesh & bone
tearing away thin skin
veneer of Freedom
no more in this Land
