Poetry: Immolation in Pastels by Kristin Garth
Immolation in Pastels
for Parineeta, a woman who survived
burning in a pastel house in Jawan,
India in 2014 because she wanted to
run her own beauty salon
They set you aflame in the pastel house.
where you reside after marriage vows. Your
in-laws conspiring with your own spouse
to douse kerosene, defend the endangered
devout with suicidal stories they
all tell the same. You are not the first bride
in this house to be ignited this way.
You do not even know the reasons why
your predecessor was punished by flame —
only that twenty years prior she died
unlike you who survive, if not quite the same
woman bequeathed a beauty salon.
Better to forget a dream that has gone.
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