What Now?

Can you spare some small attention?
Can you spare a little time,
From your hefty general catalogue
Of things you'll call a crime?
Oh, far be it from Leyla
To beseech or to demand,
From her tiny little corner
Of her small and brutal land.
But fairness for the blameless
Wants freer sister’s words
Heard West and East; by French, and Poles,
Iranians and Kurds.

Can you spare some small attention?
Can you spare a little time?
It ain't about the funding
Though a stand may help the climb.
Your hand spreads international,
To many lands the reach,
You raise your funds in currencies—
Is the payoff in the preach?
Your followers are legion;
NOW, it may be time to lead.
It would hardly dent your message
For her brutal case to plead.

Can you spare some small attention,
Can you spare a little time?
You’ve a ‘million’ women marching—
Is it mummery, a mime?
Does your cause stick at a border?
Do you pick and choose your thug?
Is it merely favored women?
Is your indignation smug?
Do state killers fear exposure,
Would Khameini order slack
Looking on a march of portraits—
A million Leylas looking back?

Can you spare some small attention?
Can you spare a little time,
From standing black and silent
All committed and sublime?
You’re clothed as for a funeral;
Appropriate, it seems,
For women of the Middle East,
For Leyla’s hopes and dreams.
If all you held her picture,
Held a straight accusing stare,
Would the threatened of humanity
At last be glad you’re there?

Can you spare some small attention?
Can you spare a little time,
For the turbaned men in Tehran,
Souls veneered in holy grime?
She will feel her final hundred,
She’ll be dragged up to the trap
Droning mullah saints intoning
She’ll hear last, before the snap!
With ‘free women’ your ideal
Keep your hush—and share this crime.
Can you spare some small attention?
Can you spare a little time?

   posted by Stephen at 1:52 PM | Plink