THE MURDERESS
After repeated stays due to evidence of torture and coercion
Iran Human Rights confirms, a woman prisoner
Safieh “Maryam” Ghafouri was hanged early this morning.
– Shiraz, Iran, July 12, 2012
They led her in burqa & blindfold. They (masc. pl.)
executed the mother, Mary.
No scaffold/ elegant gallows. Instead
an industrial crane, all spine and faultless height,
hanged her like an outdoor chandelier that shines no light;
her garments barely tripped the wind.
Lovely lute-corseted birds hung in painted cages, all Vermeer’s
tiny women too, sing a song for Maryam Ghafouri.
all false? adulteresses lick
burning stones
innocent witches sink, iron thrones
On the sill our pearls, portraits, scales
sit for the Muses. O, Exonerated Queen of Heaven,
we’ll kill the hounds with handguns.
