Stoned

In seeming innocence you lie in the warm ochre in the center of a dust-kicked street, a remnant of larger issues crushed to just the right size by killing blows. Before the mob merged before catcalls raised the hairs on the back of your neck, you had been of a favorite pet a cherished wife. A wife and mother now lies dead brought down by the bloodlust of the men around her. Today, the stones are coated rust-red with her blood as another women of Iraq is laid low by the men who own them husbands sons and fathers. *Stoning is called Rajm in Islamic literature, and a practice found in United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Northern Nigeria, Aceh in Indonesia, Brunei, and Pakistan. Stoning is part & parcel of patriarchal societies.