They give her a choice. She can fly back in six months’ time to attend her rapists’ trial, or the boys can pay her a fine now and leave it at that. She chooses the fine. The night before we fly back home I leave Alina asleep in the hotel while I walk one last time along the quay to where a string of lights outlines an outdoor seating area. That’s where I see one of them, sitting on a barstool, flicking a Zippo®, tilting the cigarette. I go up to him, lean against the bamboo bar, ask, Are you having a good time tonight? I watch his face change from the smile he puts on for a pretty girl to something different. It takes about ten seconds but it happens.

scissors in the bath ... 
    two valium 
        with a shot of vodka 

Clare Martin’s

poetry has been published in Acorn, Blithe Spirit, Hedgerow, The Heron’s Nest, Kingfisher, Modern Haiku, Presence, and Tsuri-Doro, among others. She is Co-Director of St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace in London, UK.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Blessing by Clare Martin in The London Magazine, in the Poetry category (10 October 2023)