Destroying One Terror and Replacing It With Another

Not much to do today caught up on some deferred reading went to the store to pick up a few things took a walk down 3rd Ave to get some sun Basima and Azhar play in the okra field chasing each other screaming and laughing jaddah watches from her soft garden chair over a steamy afternoon in ancient Miranshah Did some journal writing heated some falafel and basmati for dinner downloaded some old Ahmad Jamal tunes had some chips and hummus and iced chamomile tea a methodical buzzing overhead in the high blue sky then two clicks a sudden earsplitting whistle and sharp chunks of scorched metal rip through the garden tranquility bursting into a horror of choking fire and thick dark smoke children freeze forced to see the bloody corpse of jaddah splayed in her chair blackened mutilated and smoldering Read a bit of the newspaper made some early bill payments closed the light and laid down thinking tomorrow I must buy some milk Latif a child up on the roof thrown to the ground from the force of the explosion comes crashing down cracking his skull bleeding crying and shrieking along with Basima and Azhar children of circumstance of breaking news bulletins never broadcast of broken lives and unspoken deaths whose numbers and names have rarely been recorded or revealed living ghosts left to shudder mystified and bereft more invisible victims of the sacred CIA slaughter machine with scant publicity or mention in the Constitutional press – and for the sake of the integrity of the program and the safety of the nation and without any prior knowledge to deny or decide every American is complicit every American is taking aim and pushing the button for those good kills striking at homes in shattered sand-filled lands riddled with panic and hate and God day after day and night after night