empire

the soldiers drunk in the
first purple light of morning
and driving their boots into the
skulls of sleeping babies

cutting the breasts off the mothers
and laughing at the simplicity of it

and what you can do is plant
a painted wooden cross
by the side of every interstate and
wait to see what grows

an all-night truck stop
or a walmart
or a porn site where teenage daughters
are fucked in rest stop bathroom stalls

what you can do is follow
the hawk's shadow
until it meets the rabbit's neck

build an in-ground pool in
the middle of the desert and wait
for the hookers to arrive

wait for gold to be discovered
or oil
or the body of an eight year-old girl
raped and murdered by her
next door neighbor

and what we've done is send
the soldiers to another land and
what they do there is
shoot the fathers and fuck the
daughters

what they do is film each other
torturing the prisoners

what our reasons are for the
atrocities we commit is
never quite clear