Sukina

She smiles so wetly from the photograph.
Headlines next to Thatcher No Lame Duck
And Dubcek’s Human Face.

She wouldn’t spell her name right, five years bold.
Daddy’s savage lesson with a rule
And plastic tubing and his fists –

And still to come the kettle flex and plug.
He tipped her in the bath, he slapped her back
With salt, he beat her to a pulp.

She died of pain
And shock
And sheer exhaustion.

Daddy No Lame Duck
Sukina’s Human Face
Tomorrow someone else will take her place.