battle(s) for bagdhad

smart
bombs
shriek
 	               as          
				they              
						descend
							          through             
										the             
												sky,
their heat and fire a blinding white
			against an unnatural green field of a camera's
									night-vision lens

this is (antiseptic combat)
			
	(decapitation)
							(regime change)

we do not see the bodies
			of the children:
						     s  i  l  e  n  t     .  .  .     s  t  i  l  l 
							as heat     e v a p o r a t e s     from pools 
								of cooling blood		
											or twisted
											in agony
										as shrapnel 
											imbeds in
											     bones, 
 										       faces, 
											spinal cords...

the global coalition of Americans
					damage collateral:

sending children into combat to kill enemy kids,
	destroying culture and history,
	installing democracy through overwhelming force,
	terrifying now-homeless civilians with shock-and-awe precision
				while high-ranking leaders live in bunkers in relative luxury

in the end,
war becomes the battle for the airways:
battles for bridges and oil wells hover above minefields
of public opinion:

"life" and "death" lose concrete value and become issues of semantics
as we conquer a land of burning oilfields we have no right to own
and the Iraqis taste freedom
through sweat, 
 		  blood, 
 			 and death.

battle(s) for bagdhad

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