Revenge, not justice

~ paeansunplugged

My crime is that I am a mother
and I get punished for it everyday
my heart breaks a bit every time I hear of a girl raped
and it breaks a bit further if it is a ghastly gang-rape
more so if she is brutally battered and beaten
and it shatters completely when she is burnt alive
the horrors of screaming newspaper headlines
the pleas of those girls begging for mercy
the tears and folded hands of parents seeking justice
echo within me again and again
thus drying up my tears completely
and killing my pulsating heart
in that empty space, I have placed
a cold, hard unbreakable steel
which thirsts for revenge and not justice by the book
don’t read out the human rights charter to me
if I want to see each rapist dead
I don’t care if it is by a switch, a hangman’s noose,
in a fake encounter or public lynching
don’t tell me I am a bloodthirsty hound
don’t tell me the perpetrator suffers from some mental disease
in a mother’s world justice can never be served
for how do you nurture a bruised flower back to life
how do you put together shattered dreams
how do you drive away the demons of horror
that keep revisiting at will
revenge is served when the one who robs another’s dreams
has his dreams robbed too!

( There have been a spate of gang rapes here with the girls being set to fire by the perpetrators. Listening to the news and reading about it in newspapers daily, can’t leave one unmoved!)

66 thoughts on “Revenge, not justice”

  4. Hey, can I expect a strength poem or a strength anthem sort-of, like a solution to this one?? Because this was capable enough to bleed pain so I was wondering how you would slay a justice and strength, a hard answer poem to this one?

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  5. Oh, how I hear your mother’s heart in this, Punam–your words scream for punishment…and there is never sufficient justice when the innocent are mauled and treated like trash. I don’t know what to say, except that I firmly believe in the God who keeps account of every wrong, every act of defenseless violence…and HE WILL TAKE VENGEANCE! Much love to you–and all the families of these poor girls ❤

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  6. I love to take my nieces out for long dinners at new places that we have found, and now that they are adults and insist on taking a taxi back by themselves, my wife and I are on edge until they get home. So, I do not see any justice when a police force which refused to investigate the early information tries to cover itself with pretend glory by shooting four people accused of the rape. It is not a matter of abstract principles for me, but just a concern for the safety of the lovely children who I’ve seen grow up into wonderful people. The first part of your poem speaks to my heart, but not the second.

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  8. for how do you nurture a bruised flower back to life
    how do you put together shattered dreams
    how do you drive away the demons of horror

    I am shocked and stunned, but Punam those lines above from your poetry speaks of a kinder world, it exists amidst the ugliness, I pray for those souls who have been brutally victimised and also for those who do the hurting, that their conscience is awakened, we cannot fight evil with more evil. I am so sorry for the women who have suffered so much. Thank you for writing and sharing this with us.

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  10. I like it because your writing is on point and provides imagery without being graphic. My horror that this even needs to be written to be sent out into the world because there is no other recourse for women is disturbing. Very very disturbing. Something needs to be done. What? I do not know but something needs to be done world wide. In protection of all innocents. Sorry I will get off my soap box.

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    1. It is so very horrifying, Jay-lyn and there seems to be no immediate solution! It is alright to say that we should bring up our boys to be sensitive men but what about what is happening now! There seems to be no effective short term deterrent. Thank you so much for sharing your views.

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  11. I can feel your anger and I’m with you! For me the best revenge would be for the rapist to be savagely raped and beaten to a bloody pulp and when they had recovered to do it again and again.

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  12. I’ve been following this news and it happens far too often in your country. Gang raped her and then burnt her alive on her way to court. They had a swift blessed ending when the police shot them!

    I don’t know the solution but if they behave like animals …

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      1. Punam I used to travel through your country very safely when I was a pretty young thing with red hair and blue eyes … those first few things have changed and now I’m a sitting target and I blame the easily accessible porn. Mens attitudes have become gross and no woman or child deserves what they dish out …

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      3. women tell me Indian men are demanding /expecting unusual acts due to seeing it so prolifically on line 😦 😦
        it should not be so readily available …

        Liked by 1 person

  13. It’s these words that got me:

    “in a mother’s world justice can never be served”

    I dont believe in the death penalty, but, if that was my daughter….. I have no doubt that what I ‘believe in’ would be the utter and complete animalistic rage that would engulf me for her perpetrator. It is an entirely different perspective…

    Excellent write my dear friend. You got the mama bear instinct in me going too.
    ❤️❤️

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    1. The problem here is that gang rapes are on a rise here and there seems to be no fear of law! It is the brutality with which they batter the girls and burn them alive which is so inhuman! I don’t believe in death penalty but I believe in punitive deterrence. Being objective about such incidents is not possible for me.
      Thank you for understanding. ❤️❤️

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  14. Truly I agree that the perpetrators do not deserve to just skate by while using some cheap trick to explain away the pain they inflicted. More than anything my heart is to partner alongside the parents to heal these beautiful flowers, as you put it, to help them find some normalcy in this world that has taken from them something that an I’m sorry can’t heal.

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  20. Volumes could be written in response to your sensitive, intelligent, and moving poem, Punam. Volumes. I will say right from the start, whether you are right or wrong about killing rapists, you are certainly not alone. It is a periodic, recurring daydream of mine because I happen to have almost no close female friends who have NOT suffered molestation, assault, rape, and/or attempted murder. To call sexual violence (or just “plain violence”) against women and children “a problem” is like calling a pandemic of extraordinary proportions “a problem”.

    But having said that, have you seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB7r6hdo3W4&feature=youtu.be It is a dance/poem/song/chant that began in Chile a few weeks ago and appears to be going viral in country after country now — especially Spanish speaking countries, but also others.

    The women are chanting “You are the rapist” when they point their fingers during the performance. The poem/song is all about how the system and society betray women, help create the problem of rape and then inflame it.

    I think the internet is allowing people to see that they are not alone, that they can unite against this common enemy of almost all of us, and that the last thing they need to do anymore is shut up and sit in silence while a pandemic is raging.

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