Photo courtesy of Independent

 

Nobody will mourn you, tyrant, when you’re gone,

when the coffin lowers into the grave. Nobody will

visit the memorial and there will need to be guards

 

placed on each corner to avoid some unpleasantness,

desecration of the holy word. The people will complain

as well about the cost of upkeep, and they will ask

 

what did you bring them besides national guilt

and shame? Yes, some are up in arms and defiant

about how well your army has broken enemy children,

 

their limbs, and mothers, just like they did

to our precious blood, the joy of disproportionate

revenge, all buildings crumbled, ash heaps of bones,

 

and the remaining muttering, terrified, civilians

gathered at the border waiting for no rescue ship

or plane. This has happened before, at Nandikadal,

 

on the Killing Fields, in Auschwitz where liberators

came a little too late, six million Jews and other

minorities butchered. In Gaza now, one in every

 

150 kids dead, from bombs, guns, murder. For what,

I ask along with the journalist, conveyor of news,

good and bad, truth unvarnished, bug-eyed, terrified,

 

wondering when the next airplane will fly

overhead and rain down its cargo on earth,

the unfortunate innocents in the target range?

 

When will the tyrant’s tomb be removed

from public view? Give me year, date,

cross-hairs of the inscription to be wiped away.