September Golden Shovel #4

I read about rural women in Afghanistan, how

They feared the Taliban, relied on the Taliban, feared the

Taliban again. They did not understand the myth

Of urban women wanting education. Women of

The countryside wanted food, peace. What did digital

Pictures mean to them? Did they have cellphones on a platform

Of mountains blocking signals, but not bombs, drones. Magic

Could explain the craziness of liberators hiring enemies. It goes

Without saying that normal life, in these times, goes poof.

 

source: How the Myth of Digital Platform Magic Goes Poof

30/30: Golden Shovel poem #19

source: With Much to Lose, Afghan Women Fear Stifling Return to Past

 

The hills are bare, with

Few signs of human life against much

Emptiness. Wooden stakes form an enclosure to

Hold some sheep, some goats. To lose

An animal is to lose income for the Afghan

Women living here. The women

Tend sheep, goats, kitchen, without expressing fear

Of the men who come now and then, stifling

The women’s wish for their daughters’ return

From exile, from freedom. What could daughters do to

Push back this hurtle backward to the past?

 

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Here is how I am using Terrance Hayes’s Golden Shovel poem format, as proposed by the Sunday New York Times "At Home" section, for 30 Poems in 30 Days during National Poetry Month.

 

Take a newspaper headline that attracts you.

Use each word in the line as the end word for each line in your poem.

Keep the end words in order.

Describe the story that the headline is for.

The poem does not have to be about the same subject as the headline that creates the end words.