Excerpts From A Modern Dark Age
“Women Are Being Beheaded
For Taking Their Veil[s] Off: Honor
Killings On Rise in Iraq” by Terri Judd,
Independent UK, Posted April 30, 2008
1. Removing the Veil
In Remembrance of Shawbo Ali Rauf
pale brown hair frames her face;
her summer skirt spread about her severed body—
each month at least fifteen women
beheaded in Basra alone—
genocide for the sake of religion—
an honor killing
2. Execution by Stoning
In Remembrance of Du'a Khalil Aswad, 17, from Nineveh
stoned in front of mob—of 2,000 men
She had fallen in love with a Muslim boy
outside her Yazidi tribe.
3. Burned
In Remembrance of Sara Jaffar Nimat
body found in Khanaqin, Kurdistan,
eleven-year-old girl stoned and burnt to death
4. Kidnapped
two brothers and a sister kidnapped from their home
near Kirkuk by gunmen in police uniforms—
brothers beaten to death;
woman left in critical condition
5. Stabbed
In remembrance of journalist Begard Huseein
murdered in her home Arbil, northern Iraq
by her husband, Mohammed Mustafa—
He stabbed her.
He said she was in love with another man.
6. Rape: Not reported.
7. Law
new Iraqi constitution—
men and women equal under law
but decrees that sharia law—
one male witness worth two females—
must be observed
PENULTIMATE
A Monsieur Charles
Our bare feet escape conventional shod
as we slide, slide across the parquet sod.
A white dove, fluttering, flickering bright,
through the window she comes to light.
Silver raiment shines the gold,
lifting us from linens pressed,
whispering secrets now unfold.
On wings, we ride the wind,
lace to linen is the test.
Shifting sails toward heaven's end
through sky-blue mist,
the story's old, settling softly on the fen
where heavy dampness takes its hold.
Into warmth, we hold so tight.
Rainbow Aube, now in sight,
Far from earth, the feeling, odd.
Life's climax, so close to God.
PÉNULTIÈME
A Monsieur Charles
Nos pieds nus échappent à conventionnel chausses
Au moment où nous glissons,
glissons à travers le gazon de parquet.
Une colombe blanche, flottant, clignoter lumineux,
par la fenêtre elle émerge.
Le raiment s'enticher de l'or,
nous soulevons des toiles ont serré,
Le chuchotement de secrets maintentant dévoilent.
Sur des ailes, nous montons le vent,
le lacet à la toile est l'essai.
Voiles de décalage vers l'extrémité du ciel
À travers la brume bleue des cieux,
l'histoire vieille, arrangeant doucement sur le marais
là où lourd l'humidité prend sa prise.
Dans la chaleur, nous nous tenons tellement fortement.
Arc-en-ciel Aube, maintenant en vue,
Loin de la terre, le sentiment, étrange.
L'apogée de la vie, ainsi près de Dieu.
"GOOD-PAIRING"
They classified us, laughed at us—
Non-traditionals at the university.
The instructor asked you to remove your cap
after you took your seat in English class.
I think you liked to hear her ask you that.
I immersed myself in The Odyssey,
and you insisted, "Athena lived vicariously through Penelope."
You were always a better student than me.
Still you found me at the coffee shop,
sipping cappuccino and mulling over French literature.
I need to write a poem about you.
Even the campus Curmudgeon commented,
"There's something intimate about sharing a cup of coffee."
Semesters passed as we passed between classes.
You said, "Take Saucier for Western Civ.
He loves the Beatles, just like us."
So I asked you what you wanted to be—
"Teach in New Mexico, live in the mountains."
Sounds like you've got your life planned out.
But we surprised each other, and
changed our lives dramatically.
A Drive across the Tularosa Basin
with My Historian
for my husband, Chuck
Far-reaching, across white sand,
illusive waves spread a river from the Sacramento
to the San Andres Mountains
To me this land, so filled with history, is foreign,
vast and dry, scattered with sage brush,
mesquite, and yucca, it tells a story.
Heat of awe-dry pavement gives way
to aquatic reflections of an early geological epoch
as my historian drives, mountain-mesmerized.
Rising layers of limestone, shale, gypsum,
and sandstone, submerged under a shallow sea—
earth's great internal force has spoken.
I slip into another time, where soaring, soft tones
slide from peaks, plunging into the last ice age,
melting until Lake Otero covers the basin.
The lake and grasslands warm the way;
ancestors of American Indians race across the basin,
hunt bison in lush green for a thousand years.
More climate consumes the grassland and lake;
hunters and plant gatherers pass the way;
then farming, all lasting ten thousand years.
The Tularosa Basin runs empty—perhaps
three hundred years pass until drums beat the wind,
lifting dust of ghost dancers, whispering songs on the desert.
Mescalero Apaches coil crystal grains of sand;
settlers and cowboys, replenish, re-plow,
pushing Apaches into mountains, reservations.
In a flash of light, the sun rises twice,
rippling an atomic wave, sweeping
dreams of ranchers to the other side.
Look, see how the Stealth steals the sky?
Yellow-gold gleams sunlight as we pull in our drive.
The first daylily spirits her wings, refusing
to let them rule, under the guise of the Trinity1.
1 "Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time
on July 16, 1945" (U.S. Army).
Katherine ~Rhi~ Tracy teaches English at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, LA where she lives
with her husband, Chuck Dellert. She is the mother of two sons and a daughter, and the grandmother
of three beautiful girls. She is the editor and co-owner of Thunder Rain Publishing Corp.,
http://www.thunder-rain.com which she created in 1996. Thunder Rain currently publishes
about one book a year. Their first historical fiction, A Savage Wisdom, by Norman
German will be released later this year. She currently serves on the committee for the Jubilee
Jambalaya Writers’ Conference http://www.jubileewritersconference.org of Houma, La. Although
poetry is her favorite type of writing, she has written numerous articles for several newspapers
and other publications. She faithfully watches MSNBC and CNN. Her most recent publication
includes the poem, “Ina’s Bottomland,” in the Old Mountain Press Anthology Series, Southern Mist.
Her poems will also appear in the winter issue of Magnolia Quarterly published by the Gulf Coast
Writers Association.
(c) Katherine Tracy
Publisher, Editor*
L'Intrigue Magazine
Thunder Rain Publishing Corporation
*Among the other hats Tracy wears are photographer, poet, essayist, and teacher. PJDG
