"Mosammet Hena"

-published by Juked

February second
I click on the headline:
KEPLER SATELLITE FINDS HABITABLE ZONES
possibilities for life
on Earth-like planets
in transit around Sun-like stars.
Beside the article,
a picture of a coiling cluster of stars
I click another headline:
BENGLA TEEN WHIPPED TO DEATH
sentenced along with her cousin,
who raped her
then fled the district of Shariatpur,
to one hundred lashes 
for a forbidden affair.
After seventy hits with a bamboo cane,
she surrendered to the blackness
then bled to death in a hospital
several hours later.
Beside the article 
by some small mercy 
there is no photo.
What happened to Mosammet Hena after the fatwa?
I see her at the milky center of our spiral galaxy
swathed in a billow of ethyl formate
blended with the warmth of a thousand sighing suns,
which neither falter nor fade,
dining on raspberry mousse as airy as clouds
and delicious sponge cake
rum-flavored
and golden.

Reviews

[Stabitha]

Remarkable. The combination of (beautifully-constructed) astronomical and gastronomical imagery is striking in itself - using these devices to comment on a horrific act of misogyny is successfully transcendental and presents optimism. Many thanks for sharing.

[KayD]

I didn't know where this poem was going but the contrasts between the stars and the fate of the girl were perfect and brought out the terror and the horror, set against an undiscovered universe where, just maybe, life could be more fair.
Thank you