by Gifford Savage
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| Pakistani police have arrested Shahzaib Khan who allegedly shot dead his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a son. The incident took place on Monday in the Mianwali city of Pakistan’s Punjab province where the father had first escaped after firing multiple shots at the infant, according to police officials. The baby girl (pictured above)—named Jannat, meaning “heaven” in Urdu—was hit by five bullets and died instantly, Mianwali police officer Hayatullah Khan said. —yahoo!news, March 9, 2022, since updated from reports on Twitter. |
Hell in Ukraine kept Heaven from the headlines,
pushed her far down the online newsfeeds—
as inevitably it would.
More important breaking news took precedence:
Donald Trump asked his supporters to fund a new private jet
Lauren Boebert and 'Prince John'
Nicki Minaj’s butt injections
Dolly’s latest release,
something about Harry & Megan—
(because there’s always something
about Harry and Megan).
On the day after International Women’s Day
Heaven’s seven days on earth
were only a footnote
far down the pecking order.
Her little life hardly a ripple in the big scheme.
Shot five times
for being a girl
when daddy had wanted a boy.
Gifford Savage is from Bangor, Northern Ireland. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals including Poetry NI, Lagan Online, Poetry 24, and the Bangor Literary Journal. He has performed his poetry on local television station ‘Northern Visions TV.’