A Strange Thing

Whoever gets to hear of it
Is shocked.
Today a girl
Has refused to place her head
On the sacrificial butcher’s block,
She wants to live.
Angry, mocking, stones in hand
People have come out to stone her to death.
She has refused to accept
Her husband as a surrogate god.
She has blasphemed.
She wants to live.
For bread and home
She has dared to come out.
She has refused to accept
A life doled out as charity.
Her reins
She has tried to snatch away from the hands of others.
Considering herself to be human
She has demanded the right to choose.
She wants to live.
Whoever gets to hear of it,
Is shocked
Beyond words.