Poems Niedengarasse

D.B. Cox
Heshu

On October 12, 2002, Heshu Yones, a sixteen-year old Iraqi Kurd who was planning to run away from her family home in London had her throat cut by her father, because he believed she was dating a non-muslim and had become too westernized. -- Harper’s Magazine
 
and when he had slaughtered
his wayward, western daughter,
the one he could not comprehend,
him crazy -- out of control,
like some blind and willful beast.
 
when his anger was spent,
and the silent room began
to whisper its accusations.
 
what then?
 
did he scream out her name?
 
did he bend to touch
her perfect face, and gaze
into staring, black eyes?
 
did his blood-stained fingers
trace the long, dark
waterfall of her hair
to where it flowed
into that cruel, red river
just below her throat?
 
did he now, in utter despair
of his own fatal vision,
turn the blade on himself
and write a fitting end to this
pathetic, one-act play?
 
or?
 
did he coldly
lay the knife
on the killing floor,
place a call,
and wait.

D. B. Cox: Blues musician/poet, originally from South Carolina, now resides in Watertown Massachusetts. He has written poetry for a few years, but, until recently, had never submitted any for publication This Spring, he has had poetry published in: Ken*Again, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Poetry Repair Shop, and Perigee.  email: D.B.Cox
09-04