‘Katra’ – a poem by Kavita A. Jindal, written in reaction to an apparent ‘honour killing’ of two teenaged girls in India.
Katra
May 2014
My sisters
you have been strangled and hung
from the mango tree.
For international papers
you’ve been
a horrific story
until the next disaster and outrage elsewhere.
My sisters
don’t forgive us
our broken world
our exclamations and excuses
our failure to educate
menfolk in decency
our not being able to provide you safe toilets.
You didn’t need lavatory buildings
commodes or toilet seats
you needed safety,
be it in fields
or walking the lanes
around your home.
You needed no one to believe they were better than you.
You needed no one to assume
you mattered so little
that you could be killed
you could be child pawns
of punishment and disgrace
and the police would think nothing of it.
My sisters, it was not you who were shamed.
It was everyone else.
Perhaps you were raped
perhaps you were spotted talking
to a male friend
perhaps you were abducted.
None of this is your shame.
It is ours
that it can even be said
that two teenage girls
should be strung up
silenced
by their own dupatta.
We failed you in so many ways.
My sisters
don’t forgive
bequeath your souls to the breeze
so the perpetrators hear you
carrying with them always
your unforgiveness.
Don’t let them forget; don’t let us forget.