Asifa's Blood Pens

Asifa's Blood Pens (The Courageous Princess) No! No! Wipe out the name of Asifa! No more Asifa's on this earth to be born! O Lord, my creator, my benefactor, my protector! My parents chose my name in your presence They thought their princess would be brave That sure I was! Very brave! I fought till you wanted me to. I screamed out for my mom, I called out your name, To help me, my lord, but only in spasmodic pain! I was taken where you resided, but you did not find me Were you sleeping? Because I saw you, but I didn't feel you! I was dragged and I was bundled, I was sozzled and I was sizzled, I was torn and I was ripped, I was thrashed and I was banged My bones in a million pieces and my frail body in confusion Lay threadbare as many scavengers hovered above me Some in the name of protectors, some in the name of justice, My ungroomed grooms routed and roared in turns Dishonouring me in your temple of honour, They gnawed and battered my delustered dead body The lust in their eyes spewed uncontrollable triumph My spirits lay crestfallen at being heinously robbed Of my innocence, of my childhood, of my freedom They rollicked and they frolicked, They rocked and rolled on my vanquished skins The might of your mite was lost in confused plight The eroded soul of your sacrificial lamb Walked into the dreary haunted meadows Flocked with slaughtered souls of diapered babies, The young and the old all tethered alike. The bigots were my fathers, they were my brothers, They had their own little Asifa's safeguarded at home. They pawned their souls for a well chartered ecstasy I served their dual purpose in the name of religion! In my death, I gave! A child of eight gave bliss! A tender girl became an adult scapegoat to illegal justice! I wanted to live, but was butchered and strangulated In death I find new love sprouting the world over My living gods and angels now broil to give me poetic justice! Balveen Kaur Cheema April 15, 2018 *Contest:New Poems Only Sponsor: Emily Pinet * The chilling details of the gruesome rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl sent jitters across India. The minor girl from the Bakerwal community was kidnapped when she was grazing her horses in the meadows in Kashmir when a man beckoned her on January 10. She followed him and was taken to a temple in Rasana village in Kathua district. Her attackers, which included temple official and policemen, drugged and gang raped her over days before finally killing her and dumping her body in a forest nearby, seven days later. She was raped even after death. Days later, Asifa's crumpled body was found in the forest, in the same purple dress, now smeared with blood.The girl was attacked to scare away the nomadic Muslim community out of the village.