Straight-backed and big-ear-bald, the army man
Tells us what he did in our name, how he held
The father to the floor with a foot on his chest
And waved his gun at the others to leave the room.
The others were children, a wife greasy with dinner,
A woman who must have been an aunt. They
Were too frightened to move, so he lowered the gun
And said to his two buddies: Show them out.
Left alone with the man of the house, he kicked
Him in the side, pulled out a knife, and pressed
The point to his neck. Tell me who that sniper is
Or I will slice off your tongue. The man grabbed
At the knife and cut his tongue with it himself.
The squiggles on the floor even God couldn’t read.