like fire

thought maybe the

blood would begin to

run backwards once the

war was over but

it didn’t

 

thought surrender would

earn us mercy

but no

 

the children were lined up and

shot beneath tattered white flags,

their bodies dumped in the river,

their mothers raped and then

butchered, and do you

remember the year?

 

was it before you were born?

 

after we died?

 

do you remember the priests

and their magic wands,

their answers that answered

nothing at all?

 

found you naked behind the trailer

with your wide open eyes

and quicksilver wrists

and I told you there that the

baby would never have my name

 

told you that the dogs would

say whatever they had to

to get in between your legs

 

let you find out for yourself

that being weak in the

civilized world would

never buy you any mercy