Content Advisory
This poem confronts violence against women, including allusions to honor-based violence. Its imagery of bodily harm is metaphorical — the language of protest.
Aporia publishes imaginative writing. The voices in our contributors' work are literary personae.
Kissing her lips
bruising her speech
Lessons ramming down
Stitching throat
color? Bruised Purple
mixing red violence
with blue virtue
red and blue, blue and red
making bruised purple obedience
Plucking and ripping the thread of her choices
from the ribs of heart
choices dripping
one after another
from eyes, scarring cheeks
Stitching eyes with thread of sacrifice
color? Bruised Purple
Suffering? stitching with the thread of fate
color? bruised purple
hammering nail into feet
stitching freedom with thread of obedience
color? bruised purple
digging grave
throwing, burying bruised purple flesh of choices, freedom, speech,
stitching with the thread of honor
color? bruised purple
