THIS COUNTRY IS NOT FOR WOMEN

by Pulkita Anand

Is India a Safe Place for Women? Another Brutal Killing Raises the Question. The rape and murder of a trainee doctor at her own hospital has brought up, once again, uncomfortable truths about a country that wants to be a global leader. —The New York Times, August 22, 2024

This country is not for women
Its daughters are scared in the womb
This country is not for women
Its wives are pleading for their lives
This country is not for women
Its sisters are trampled by its brothers
This country is not for women 
Its friends are betraying and selling friendship
This country is not for women
Its air is filled with lust
Where leery eyes want to defile innocence
This country is not for women
Its voices are crushing their voices
This country is not for women
Its growth lies in pushing them in the name of culture
This country is not for women
Its men feel pride in demeaning them
This country is not for women
Its fathers are not desiring their daughters
This country is not for women

Its character lies in cursing them

Pulkita Anand is an avid reader of poetry. She has translated one short story collection Tribal Tales from Jhabua. Author of two children’s e-books, her recent eco-poetry collection is we were not born to be erased. Various journal publications include:  Setu Journal, Shortstory Kids, The Criterion, Twist and Twain, Tint Journal, Indian Ruminations, Langlit, Ashvamegha, Lapis Lazuli, Conifer Call, The Creativity Webzine, WinC Magazine, Stanza Cannon, Superpresent, Madwomen in the Attic, Poetica, The Uglywriters, Impspired, Literary Yard, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Kritya, The Amazine, Carmina Magazine, and Asiatic.

FIGHT OR FLIGHT OR BOTH

by Ron Riekki

When we saw the body being dragged down the aisle,
no one was concerned because it was only the fifth body
that day murdered by the flight crew.  The country was over-
booked, just too many people, and so a little genocide never hurt
anyone.  The blood smeared along the floor just meant jobs—
someone has to clean up all the lungs and livers and specks
of the underemployed from the thousand-dollar seat human pipeline
with no food, no movies, nothing but a seat, or part of a seat anyway,
the elbow of the person next to me in my lap, literally, the rest of the person
gone now; I suppose I should discard it, but there’s no garbage cans anymore.
I mean, not even on the ground.  We just litter, everywhere—there is no difference
between a junkyard and a national park.  Who needs difference?  We’re all the same.
We’re all basically from Africa, all of us, especially our President who is making

the American red hat great again.  When I think of our powerful and wise President,
I think of two words: hat & red.  It’s His symbol, our symbol.  Hat red.  The word
makes me feel proud.  I mean words.  Who cares about spelling or grammar anymore?
It’s all about moneymoneymoney.  A corpse these days can fetch you a hundred
           dollars.
To get on the flight, TSA rapes you.  It’s for your own safety.  I know that
when I was raped for my safety, I thanked the man with his perfect English.
He held my penis in his hand and I said thank you for making me not have to worry
about being abused on the flight.  He gave me a little hug, which caught my attention
and told me I had a thirteen-percent chance of living.  He gave me a little tiny package
of pretzels.  It was so small that I needed tweezers.  I just prayed that they didn’t know
I had Middle Eastern on my mother’s side of the family. I mean I prayed
           metaphorically.
I wouldn’t really pray.  I mean not unless I was doing it properly, patriotically, scared.
I mean sacred.  Sacred as hell.


Ron Riekki wrote U.P.: a novel (Sewanee Writers Series and Great Michigan Read nominated) and edited The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (2014 Michigan Notable Book from the Library of Michigan and finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award/Grand Prize shortlist, Midwest Book Award, Foreword Book of the Year, and Next Generation Indie Book Award), Here: Women Writing on Michigan's Upper Peninsula (2016 IPPY/Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal Great Lakes—Best Regional Fiction and Next Generation Indie Book Award—Short Story finalist), and And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (Michigan State University Press, 2017).