The Double Tap, September 2nd, 2025

They said the sea bore traffickers —
black hull beneath moonlight,
a streak of smoke, a thunder-flash,
the first strike: eleven lives erased,
one boat, swallowed by waves.

Then the water stilled. 
Survivors clung to splintered wood,
two souls drifting in the gloom — not combatants now,
just bodies, gasping hope.
And then: a second thunder. 
Another flash.
The sea closed in around them.

So ends the last breath.
No trial, no verdict — only fire and silence.
The orders came: “destroy the threat.”
But what counts as threat — when the hull is broken,
the weapons gone, and only fragile flesh remains?

In the log of war they write: “enemy eliminated.”
In the ledger of sorrow they mark: 11 lost — 2 more.
The sea remembers. 
The world watches.
And beneath the midnight water, innocence drifts,
as witnesses to a crime unnamed.
That was a double tap.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2025

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December 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Poignant- it's so weird that I have been watching war movies lately. I watched one called The Final Stand today, it's not like this poem, but it's a good movie, points out a lot of uncomfortable things. This is poignant and powerful, James.
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