Author: Hallie Kunen
I throw my white sheet over my bed
like laying on a wedding dress
on the daughter I never had.
I wake up in a pool of blood
not knowing if it’s my period or I’m bleeding to death
in front of a bunch of IDF soldiers
whistling screams, wailing punctures in the sacred alcoves
muzzles on scraped *qibla walls
guffaws about my underwear
sizing me up and the other girls
we are merely comics, sources of laughter for them
can be throbbed to the wall as easily as a bullet
can explode like a bomb and give the soldiers extra thromb
an additional flow of prolactin
they thought Nazis were ill
and *they pretend they’re devoid of guile
but they transmute the Nazis to angels
and will briskly replace them to
be devoured by venal brushfires
for even the earth cannot bolster their festered limbs
My sheet is no longer white
but I know once I give to life
there will be a slip of shroud trailing in lace up above,
I can inhabit and deem as my own.
Additional information
“Qibla” is the direction of the Kaaba (the sacred building at Mecca,) to
which Muslims turn at prayer.
This poem was inspired by incidents I read about the IDF committing sexual abuse, which are abhorrently (disgustingly) common. In addition to raping and assaulting women, the IDF limit the number of feminine products that are in Palestine/the Gaza Strip, and they increased this post-10/7. In addition IDF soldiers have demanded women hostages (women they hold in their prisons) strip down to their underwear and they mock them, including while they are on their periods.
Reading about this latter egregious act is what inspired me to write this poem.
The woman protagonist of this poem is courageous, and I am courageous for writing this poem and putting it up for publication.
Author bio:
Hallie Kunen started writing poetry in her teens, as an outlet to process her thoughts on this complicated world. She took a break in early college, and then was inspired to write again after joining Stain’d Arts, a nonprofit in Denver, CO, that lifts marginalized voices. This inspired her to continue to write on both political (aka *humanity matters) and also her personal life. She currently lives in NYC.