A Mute Sonnet

Dark it was, when they invaded; dark it was when they hurt her

Dark it was when they violated; Dark was their manic laughter

To her humiliation and agony, her mute tears bore testimony

Her soundless scream, stayed witness to, their cruelty and hegemony

Endless, the night of anguish seemed, to her tiny tortured body

Resigned, as it waited for the dawn to bring a lull in the brutality

Immobile as she slumped there, laid low by her tormenters

Wish she did for her life to end and the body broken into splinters



Bright it is and hot too, as she stands there tarnished and beaten

Her child hungry, whom she cannot feed; for days she has not eaten

‘Characterless’, ‘shameless woman’ a ‘mother of a fatherless child’

The high and mighty holy ones label her a beast gone wild

Mute she stands, her head hung low tears flowing down her cheeks

A tiny morsel and sustenance in this harsh world are all that she seeks