She left the mosque, glancing back to admire
Its conforming embroidered established beauty, its
Minaret rising skywards in ******* glory, her prayers done
In unprotested segregation. In public
Only her embellished eyes were seen staring outwards
In religious line-toeing from her crow-black shroud
Her breath caught up in its funeral mummery.
All individuality shorn away by garb caught mid-way between
Oppression and conviction. Rejecting sexuality, the flirtatious
Gaze of strangers, but by doing so obsessed by that which she feared-
A world filled only with lust where displayed flesh
Is a siren’s song in a corrupt world and living a gasping lurch
Towards death.