…At point blank range

With Malal Yousafzai so much in the news again with reports and articles such as these:

in the The Prague Revue

in the Washington Post

and in the New York Times

I thought the time is right for me to post a poem I wrote several months ago on a chance remark made by my husband when I wondered how the would-be assassin could miss Malala at such short range? And he replied, ‘Perhaps he couldn’t do it’. And from this, the following poem arose:

The training it was thorough

The orders loud and clear

The young girl was a menace

And she was spreading fear

I really didn’t get it

But my superiors were sure

And on the Internet they said

Her demands were all impure

She went against the Holy Book

And that’s why it was so strange

That when I burst into the bus

I missed Malala at point blank range.

I am a trained sharp-shooter

And I’ve shot into the sky

I’ve nicked the wing-edge of a plane

As it went screaming by

I practice in the mountains

I shoot while on the run

I always get my targets

Yes, almost every single one.

And yet the day I saw the girl

My mind was so deranged

That when I burst into the bus

I missed Malala at point blank range.

My punishment it seems severe

For I’ve been thrown in prison

A soldier for the holy cause

I failed awfully in my mission

So why is it that when I pray

And ask for His forgiveness

There is a tiny ray of light

That tells me I am blessed?

Tomorrow at the dawn of day

I’ll be in the shooting range

And face a firing squad because

I missed Malala at point blank range

Last night I dreamt an angel came

And as he in my cell did stand

He smiled and said, “It wasn’t you

But God, who shook your hand.”

So when I face the squad at dawn

I’ll ask them for a change

To take away my blindfold

For at last I’m not ashamed

And as they start their countdown

And raise their rifles at the range

I’ll sing out loud and clear to all:

“Thank God, I missed Malala at point blank range!”