-Neal Zetter

 

Women are abused all over the world. Causes are launched to counter this injustice. Today the society is still the same as hundreds of years ago…will it get any better …no acid throwing, no gang rapes, no forced labour… some lines some thoughts

It’s a girl,
O’hurry put her beneath the sand
Oh, no one can stand or understand
this creature, soft and tender
I wonder why ?when life is so grand.
Girls, mothers daughters
sisters and wives,
Can life move on without these five?

The land of Faith The land of oil
Did they really bury their daughters
alive? Girls are the lively spirits
of a home or castles at heights
girls are Goldilocks Cinderellas
and Snow Whites
They are Queens Ranis and First ladies
blacks or whites-

When girls are born moods are forlorn
bringing up a burden in a teacup , a storm,
Then sold tortured and finally given away
Where is a girl’s real home, to stay?

Born buried and barred,
are they really so bad
and scarred?

Girls are sweet loving and kind
I wish we would be soft tender
and caring for them
in our hearts and mind.

=Anjum Wasim Dar

Here’s an as yet unpublished poem of mine, dedicated to all those undergoing domestic abuse, even more so due to the lockdown in the pandemic.

Whispering Breath

I’ve not told you everything he did to us.
(whispering breath)
Why I’m sat on edge
of bed using upstairs phone.
Got to speak quietly.
My fault.
He keeps telling me
(conspiratorial breath)
I caused it
by what I did.
(questioning breath)
Is it something in me that’s at fault?’
Have l something wrong with me?
Am I a good person?
 I’m afraid of him. What he might do
If I do this or the other.
I have no feeling for him.
(accusatory breath)
He says I’ve made the Love go.
He threatens me
because this is the only way
to
get it back.
I’m terrified, love.
(weeping breath)
Doesn’t lack of love mean more love needs to be given, not hate?
(angry breath)
He likes Old Testament. ‘Eye for an eye … ‘
calls himself Christian.
Knows the Bible off by heart.
Laughs at my attempts
 to read it and so argue against him,
(determined breath)
Each person’s got to be responsible for themselves.

-Paul Brookes