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Sinta
She succumbed to typhoid at twenty-six,
Sinta, my part-time Photoshopper,
fluent in HTML, clubbing and 'just having fun'.
Her Koran thumping Sumatran parents believe
their kafir daughter's gone to Jahannam,
that fiery place of punishment,
for rashly fucking before marriage;
the red spots that erupted like lava
on her chest and abdomen,
to be taken as cautionary signs.
Her father, Abdullah, a customs officer,
said at her funeral, when they laid
Sinta's near skeletal body into the grave,
"Our daughter chose *Jahannam over Jannah,
and now she pays the duty.
Allahu Akbar."*
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