ELEGY TO A BELOVED
Lioness you were, when the leopards raged
Thrusting your love – no will to be revenged
Bare-chested, you took the bullets of beasts
You conquered, went down with unshaken fists…
Infant, yet a conscript in kindred war
Gender constrained but with courage you tore
The barriers of hate and stood like the Lamb
Slaughtered by men, your blood will prove a balm.
And in my dreams, your infant’s smiling tears
Flowed to the last, a dauntless look he bears
Disdaining sunshine, he fought in the womb
And ceded, wounded, milk for heroic tomb
Your comrade’s belied wail disgraced his name
For in your agony is found his shame
Your pains, unknown to him, were seen by the blind:
I blame culture’s venom on the female kind
Memory’s recollection brings me tears
So young a time since you were still my cares
To regard you as late this kin declines
Towards your giggles his thought still inclines
The ink of my tears dries the blood of my pen
Emotions are gone, what’s left is grinding pain
In my mind daily flares your smile so brief
You live on in these lines I write in grief
First published on Facebook on 2013-12-16 at this link.