Shamseh Abdullah was stoned to death

The July 18 stoning was the second in a span of 24 hours. A day earlier, 26-yearl-old Shamseh Abdullah was killed in a similar way in the nearby town of Tabqa by Islamic State fighters. Both were accused of having sex outside marriage. [Bassem Mroue, "Islamic State rebels stone 2 Syrian women," HSA, 10 Aug 2014, A10] 

Shamseh Abdullah, receive these stones.

There are men who call themselves right
and they do the most evil thing, like removing
what love there is left in your beating heart.

Did you hear them cry, scream, shout at you,
perhaps saying for all ears to hear, 'Slut, slut, slut!' 

The first stone landing into your head, the soft stop
covering what reason you have for holding on
to the dance of loving, your lover like them
but not so, unwilling to let you go, but could not,
for the life of him, wield the power of a god
he did not know. What is there between 

pulsing veins that know the intimacies of caress,
the hand tracing the lines of your body, and,
in the infinite hours of longing, you do the same
to him, and tell him, with the heavens as your witness, 
that love is there for the taking
for the dreaming that will never come to an end
except this, today, when one stone after another
comes to assault every syllable of your fear,
the rising and falling of your terror as you
cower in trembling, you, daughter of a faith
that knows peace, and quiet, and lament. 

I can only hear your sobs in between
the words of this news about your death. 
I mark the calendar, and it is one of burial, 
your limp body hauled like a log,
any sign of breathing surrendered to these man
who speak in truth and in victory,
the moral of their actions beyond relief. 

Dust shall own you soon, 
and then you become earth. 

Visit us some time soon, we men trying 
remember your scream, the first and the last,
so that in our sleep, we throw back the stones
to the shores of rivers, pile up and them a memorial
to this sacrifice you have offered. 

HI/10 Aug 2014