The crusted sand scurries from underneath her feet
Piles of jagged rocks
Surrounding a circle of sand
Desolate like death

Her heart beats rapidly from within her chest
She mumbles foreign words of prayer
They trickle from her trembling mouth
She must not fear
For her daughter’s sake

Her daughters huddle together
Their faces stained
With dirt and tears

The oldest caresses the youngest face

Her only son stands strong at her husband’s side
His betrayal reflects immense pain in her eyes

Pushed down upon the compact ground
She strokes the cool prayer beads draped from her neck

The sand begins to engulf her
Her soul seems to drain from within her
Her face turns to a sickly, fluorescent white
She has given in to her fate

The crowd forms a staggered circle
An eerie silence
For emotion is forbidden

She prays for her daughters to find freedom
Prays for her husband and son to find their pure heart
And not a single prayer for herself…

Her husband
Of ten miserable years
Grasps the jagged edges of a rock in the pile next to him
His hatred pierces the knife like points
Revealing the first drops of blood in his hands

He passes the rock to his only son
Of just fifteen years old
Such a young murderer

She does not shut her eyes
Without much contemplation,
Her baby boy launches the rock at his only mother

No emotions escape his dark soul
His father’s soul

The rock hits her head
Hard
Blood pours from the indent in her forehead

She feels no pain
But the pain of ultimate betrayal

Suddenly
Every man she has ever known
Her father, uncles, cousins, brothers
Pick up stones and throw them
At her

But she feels no pain
Her soul has already left her body
She ventures up
In and above the clouds

She is finally free
From a life of misery