Just because you can’t bear to look
Doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
They huddle in the corner.
Blood splatters the wall
Rudely
Violently
Interrupting the
Sterile white tiles.
What do you feel?
Horror? Sympathy?
What do they feel?
There can be no words.
Then another is dragged,
Pulled upwards by her leg.
Is the pain worse than the fear?
Her belly is slashed.
Blood pours out.
Intestines fall to the floor.
Her eyes are wide.
She sees.
She screams.
No one can hear.
These people who do this to her –
Do they hear her?
Do they care?
The minutes it takes for her to die
Are like hours.
Was the torture worse?
Was the waiting worse?
Being born was worse.
The torture and pain and murder
Are over.
For SOMEONE.
For another it may never be over.
Just because you can’t bear to look
Doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Jahanera Noor
Jahanera Noor is an author from London, UK, who mostly writes short stories, including stories for children. She works as a nurse and is an advocate for animal rights and a campaigner with the Stop the War Coalition. She has previously published fiction in Diogen, Novi Plamen, Lascaux Flash etc.