Accusation

Her name is Kepari Leniata
Remember her because I am not
convinced that the frothing crowds
will not return

They hurl accusation
relatives of a dead boy overwhelm 
her with contorted faces
torture her long
kill her sure
say she's a witch
whose sorcery
is strong
but not strong enough
to escape their strip her naked
splash with gasoline
burn her alive
judgment

she is not witch enough
for their rage, cannot summon
the aid of police or firefighters
who try their own magic
to save her 
life

"she admitted to killing the boy"
this admission 
in the midst of 
torture

so they brand her with hot iron, tie her to
a pile of tires, fire their judgment
"police outnumbered by onlookers
cannot intervene" in the face
of despicable act
governments speak out
after the fact 
but she is 
dead

what good is their condemnation
this poem 
these tears
in the presence of her
charred body, her life
gone

She is woman, another woman
killed by accusation
one of two/thirds women
battered at home, 
of the one/half
raped

only the word "witch" 
and fire is justice enough
"large troubling trend"
is what the newspaper
calls torture, willing witnesses
smoke-filled screams 
the smell of burning human flesh
a "major barrier"
to Papua New Guinea's
development

a deadly development for Kepari Leniata
remember her name
remember the accusation
that killed 
her

© Valerie Bridgeman

February 9, 2013
FOR February 8, 2013

Based on a story from February 6 in Papua New Guinea, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/kepari-leniata-young-mother-burned-alive-mob-sorcery-papua-new-guinea_n_2638431.html?utm_hp_ref=world