Hard doctor’s fingers
   
grab her tiny baby arm

Failing tawny flesh    
strained against the sharp until    
pop    
he forces it in    
a new hole    
the size of a bullet           

Her final journey    
paused impatient       

Blown vein leaking    
infant red    
into tissue and    
flies flies flies    
in seared heat    
of middle east last breaths  

Family gone she is the only left    
not for her to know no one notices    

This home this God    
forsaken inhospitable dust    
thanks be to the occupying infidels    
God help her and you go yourself lord    
not Jesus this is no place    
for children La ilaha illallah    

Green lake of soldier urine    
and poppies grow crimson    

Row on row the vital provisions    
rushed out to relieve in discretions    
from distant lands so bombs bombs bombs    
she is just culled lateral dam age    
name unknown concussed    
internal organs blown butchered       

Impatience interstitial fluid    
will not replace blood    
lost why bother mere moments    
he must move on no longer    
he speaks when    
“A Gift from US”    
arrives it is not polite to    
complain in horses’ mouths.    

Supplies are supplies    
are supposed so flies flies flies    

No cries she also is polite    
slipping away sixteen-gauge I.V. catheter    
so-called sewer-pipe reserved for    
major adult veins    
major adult arteries    
major adult surgeries       

Needle one third    
the size of her arm    

Exploding vein    
and tearing humerus    

Muscle already that is cold    
no more abductions here    
statistics are needed not in    
formation of actual people    

And now she    

these tiny baby    
three months is    

But one more.

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Sandra Dempsey

SandraDempsey.com

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