To you, her scream is silent
Her mouth is closed
Face composed
But her eyes are shouting
With a pitch that
Would shatter the glass houses
They’ve built
On pearl and palm islands

With no dates to feed herself
Or her young
Baking under sun
Not tasting the bread eaten
By lounging heathens
Selling their faith of
Lies always spun
& dusty Qurans on shelves
Never opened

Unless to smite her and her ilk
With whips sworn
To rain upon
The poorly bred and fed
Sleeping on threadbare
Beds of ropes
From which they
Shall be hung
If they dare to sing
The freedom song

Her scream to you is silent
For she dare not raise
Her voice strangled
Choices mangled
Like her nethers
Protecting honours of those
Who don’t honour her
To serve others
That won’t serve her
Even when deserved

Her screams must be silenced
When she breaks
The mould and flies
In the face of forefathers
Too wild, too free,
And must be curbed,
Bound, and trounced
With any means…
Especially violence

For Eve must never believe
That she is more
Than a vessel
To be adored
And mounted as a picture
Or a sculpture
Sacrificed on the altar
Of time immemorial
With no memories of
Amanirenas, Nzingha, or Tomyris

Her scream became silent
As hunger forced
Her to eat her tongue
When she was paid less
But paid more as
Sweat poured from
Her body consumed
By bacilli & spores
Diseased by the one
Who strayed many
Times before

Her scream was silenced
When her husband’s
Vacant eyes whitened
His soul frightened
By failures and disgraces
That weren’t his
Yet he shouldered
As fires smouldered
In villages where
All screams are now…silent.

- Gihad E. Abunafeesa