| Poem: Submit | Random | Best | Worst | Recent | Comments |
|
Dying for a Dowry (Free verse) by Blue Magpie Twenty-five thousand brides
are burned to death
in India each year,
a million more
young woman live in fear;
beauty deprived of breath;
society made sick by what it hides.
This putrid smell,
a burnt offering from hell
made for the dubious benefit
their dowries gain
Is quite illegal ...
yet their bodies fall like rain.
poisoning the country
with their pain.
The murders ...
husbands and relatives,
people ...
who care for Tvs more
than human lives,
go unpunished,
uncondemned, set free
by other people, men,
who quietly think,
if these be thoughts
amid such moral stink.
"I'll take his cash,
the truths is hard to see"
How can humanity
be sunk so fearful low?
If they could just perceive,
then they would know.
They curse themselves,
more than they can believe.
Life teaches us ourselves
and so I say.
"See all the truth and weep.
Too deep the well
and too bitter all the world
for those who sell...
humanity so cheap."
Up the ladder:
Just Being Me
Down the ladder:
Sniper
Votes: (green: user, blue: anonymous)
Arithmetic Mean: 5.4
Posted: October 13, 2002 10:07 AM PDT; Last modified: October 13, 2002 10:26 AM PDTWeighted score: 5.2 Overall Rank: 4548 Comments:
The problem is its easy to disapprove of other people's cultural practices. When Britain conquered india, they declared the practice of suttee illegal, and in some ways it became a way of resisting imperial rule. It clearly is barbaric, but attacking it from outside raises comples moral issues.
There's a well-known article by the post-colonial theorist Gayatri Spivak called 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' which addresses this issue, and is very good, if hard going.
Hi Nicholas,
Nice to be read by someone who knows what is happening. Yes I am well aware the English di an aweful lot of harm in India, including winding up the Hindu/Muslim thing the precurser of todays border problems. I see my changing 'truth's' to 'truth is' at sometime has added another unnecessry error, I cover my head with ashes and bemoan my foolishness.
The interesting paradox is that when the British banned suttee, they were performing a civilised act (amongst lots of admittedly uncivilised acts) but the Indian culture clung onto it almost as a way of raising to fingers to Imperial rule. But I think most rational people are with the English on this particular question. So where does this leave us in the morally relatvistic world? Is there basic morality, or do we let cultures get on with their own lives? Which leads us to the Arab world and America...
Well I guess I am not in a position to make decisions for others, but even though Hinduism is not a moralistic religion, in the wat Islam, Christianity and Buddhism are, India is full of teachings that say you benefit by living a moral life, suttee is no more acceptable from the point of view their own societies teachers than from ours, to this extent we are more a manifestation of Karma, than an outsider interfering, how you see it depends on whether you are looking for truth and light, or just an excuse to hate. You will find what you look for.
Humanity hasn't sunk this low, it's simply always been this low and never risen higher.
A powerful statement indeed, its well written and you need to name more specifically those responsible for this atrocity,(e.g the government, the husbands, local authorities, the u.n.) because the subject is sensitive and to some an outsider viewing the insider may provoke racial accusations.
I think however you've researched the facts, the last line could be more affecting, maybe 'Vishnu's Infasdel' would go better for the last line. Bottom line I liked it, (7)
Hi Caducus,
Thanks for the vote and taking the time to comment. I thought I did specify that it is husbands and the hudbands families that are the murders. 190 view(s)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Glad you liked it, the story came from New Scientist, which I get months behind time, I can go check out the exact issue if you wish, I put them in my school after I have read them.
Line 5 should be women not woman
The murders should be Their murderers
its amazing the mistakes that a spell checker doesn't pick up.