Bitch, we will chop your body partsrip your vaginasweep up the stripshang them like festoonssays a short message It is not so easy to kill a poetshe is not just a body to inflict wounds with weaponsbut the inner soul of a thousand ancestors We will mass rape youshoot a videoshow it in publicsays an open mail It is tough to rape a poetfrom her vagina springs the seven seasphalluses are mere pebbles We will burn you alive with your familynot let you live anywherein the worldanyone beheading youearns a good bountyhowl a thousand voices It is not simple to put a price on a poet’s headher head is ten planet earthseveryone who walks on the furrowsmade with ploughsharesis her family The food growing in her akshayapathra*is not merely food We will throw you in ten prisonsat the same timenot let you leave the countrya chorus of petitions and court cases It is difficult to imprison a poetcan life sprout in any planet oncetime is confined to a prison *Akshayapathra: Manimekalai, heroine of the Tamil classic by the same name, possesses a food-growing vessel.This poem was translated from Tamil by Ra Sh.Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor.