Kirsten Luckins is a poet, performer, illustrator, educator and theatre-maker based in north-east England. You can find more of her work at her blog www.kirstenluckins.wordpress.com , and can follow her adventures in text art, illustration and blackout poetry on Instagram @imelda_says. Her new book The Trouble with ompassion is out now on Burning Eye Books. 

Yazidi

Yazidi women have become fighters against ISIL because Islam states that men killed by women in cannot be taken into paradise.

These women’s hands,

weak, soft,

these hands that should smooth the circle

of the belly you gave her,

theses hands that should zoom a spoon

into a baby’s mouth –

if these hands should cradle

a rifle stock,

if these hands should squeeze and release

the bullet

that shatters

your narrow skull

then these hands will send you to hell

applauding.