"My skin knows my enemy," a sixteen-year-old Muslim woman who was raped.

Steel binds around
thin brown ankles

the face of the tiger menaces
eyes like burning lava
and face like snow
he pounces on her
the tiger who lost his pride
strikes and tears the flesh of the inside
with each violent shake
her skin recoils
as the eyes of the tiger burn her body
ignores the scream of tortured innocence
the root of adulthood matures too quickly

my face mirrors the image of my mother
after she learned her husband was killed
by the soldiers of war
I remember running around the yard
watching mother peg clothes on clothes line

as I feel his world between my legs
the rawness of his breath
upon my damp hair

I think of mother
of father
before the war

the hate on his eyes is like muddy water
he does not see me

hushed heavy breath fell on me like a sigh of frustration
an angry tiger who ignores the cry of girl-child
behind the corner of my neck
I hear his words
his curse
only meant for adult ears
who had
lived enough to know how to hurt young girls
experienced enough to know how to live with them

he digs his paw further into the moist ground
each dig echoes his breath
until he is done
I cry for memory