Friday poem

Stages - A poem

When I was in my mother’s belly, they battered her stomach down
(they had wished for a boy and my mother said it was a girl)
When I was a toddler, they tried to kill me
(my father went into a rage the time I knocked over a vase)
When I was a child, they used a crude scissor at my clitoris
(it bled a lot, but the ceremony was successful)
When I turned a teenager, I was gang raped once
(I did complain, but the policeman did not believe me)
When I finally got married, I was raped again.
(this time at least it was within the confines of marriage)
When I had my first child - a girl, I was mildly tortured
(a year later, thank god; I was blessed with a son)
When I had grandchildren, my children would curse me
(my son bellowed about medical costs - thank god I was partly deaf)
Now I am have withered and wrinkled and am ready to go away
(thank you, lord - I am so ready).

Skies over Staten Island on a cold morning of 16 Feb 2009

Poetry

Female genital mutilation - man's controlling hand, again... by Patrick Jones

eyelids down
drenched in righteousness
spitting venom upon innocent skin

sworn
to secrecy
steeped in indignity
parading as,
cultural identity,

stapled sexuality
an egotist's litany
controlling lives
with rusted knives

stitched virginity
with thorns of masculinity

the mouth clings to memory
as blood in dirt
an indelible history
drowned in theocracy

even diamonds slip to insignificance
as the price of purity
rises as does
the perpetual misery

be it religion or cultural
that shape the fear of the clitoral
all are evil and genocidal

eyelids open
drenched in morality
spit reason
upon decrepid ritual

Note: Patrick Jones was recently forced to launch his new collection of poems in the street after a bookstore cancelled the event because of a campaign by Christian activists. Christian Voice said the book was "obscene and blasphemous" and called on the chain to remove copies from stores.(via Bookslut )

A wrong rite

According to a foundation that performs over 200 female circumcision's (I would rather call it mutilation) each weekend in Bandung Indonesia, there are three “benefits” to circumcising girls.

- “One, it will stabilize her libido,”
- “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband.
- Three, it will balance her psychology.”

A report of this deplorable practice in Indonesia and a slideshow here.

It is now reported that this horrifying procedure is slowly gaining a quiet following among newly arrived immigrants in the US and England.

Picture courtesy: The New York Times.