A Travesty - In Memory Of Du'A Khalil Aswad Poem by Siona DoyleMcLaughlin

A life so young
A journey just begun
Like a flower that has only begun to bloom
Only to be trampled on and the life snuffed out

For love she died
Such a horrific death
Faith was ironically the divide
That sealed her fate

She straddled the fence
Eyes and heart open to all mankind
An innocence not tainted
By the rules, ignorance, and hatred

A girl not yet a woman
Full of dreams and aspirations
And passions and goals
A free spirit with wings unfurled

Pride and possession,
Indifference and evil
Dwelled in the souls of those
Who should have protected her

Brutally attacked
Like a bloody-thirsty cheetah attacks his prey
Tossed around like a ragdoll
Battered until limp

Her cries of terror and suffering
Her slow, painful death
Were met with jeers and laughter
And recorded for sadistic men to replay

The police looked on
Passive and indifferent
Equally guilty of murder
On the wrong side of the law

Justice inverted
A world devoid of humanity
Forgiveness and compassion
Are foreign ideas

Where was the mother
That carried her in her womb,
That fed her and raised her
From infancy to girlhood?

Where was the sister or brother
That should have loved her,
Without condition
And with good intentions?

Where was the religious leader
Who represents God
God being the most loving, good,
compassionate, and forgiving being of all?

Where was the public out-cry
That should have pierced the silence?
Where were the prosecutors
To punish these vigilantes?

Where is the grave?
Is there a marker to show she existed,
Or was she just discarded
Like a piece of garbage

Your name - Du’a - means “prayer”
The world prays for you
If only we had known
And our prayers spared you in time

Now we can only pray
That you are safely in God’s arms
Free from the suffering
Embraced by the love denied you on Earth

You will live on in my heart
I can never forget
The face of this girl
I never knew.

I pray for change
And an end to violence
May no person
Ever be stoned to death like you.