Civilized Snuffed Out
CANADA (PP) - This never made it to the publication of Nothing But Red, but I place it here because it is my response to the honour killing of Dua Khalil.
I felt like I was watching a snuff film,
All that rage veiled in redness.
Words such as murder, honour and religion
Sprang from the mouths of witnesses,
No matter what denomination.
Then words appeared in my mind.
Civilized
An intangible;
A ghost;
A spasm of the tongue –
An impulse of the brain.
Death
A truism;
An inevitability;
A permanence –
A happening.
Honour
Is trivial in an animalistic world.
It’s loose in its meaning,
As are the morals of those who obey it.
Those men, a rain cloud of stones,
Hovered over the snuff’s lead actress,
Not even using themselves to express rage –
Weak, but animal in nature
The snuff film proves our animal tendencies.
It explains that “civilized”
Is still as loose in its meaning as honour.