March 20, 2003 --Mea Culpa

[yellowwood]

COL. W. Patrick Lane: "You know, I really appreciate the care with which people are trying to avoid unnecessary deaths in the air targeting of all this stuff, but I’ve been in Bahgdad a lot. And when you look at where these targets were, right down near the central core of the city along the Tgris Rver, this is the densest part of the city."

At Home, March 2003

The sun shining through the windows
An Auden poem book lying on the shelf,
The clock pendulum
Ticking, ticking,
My husband filling the bird feeder,
The furnace kicking on.

Too quiet here,
But the touch of a button
And a rectangle lights
A window on Baghdad—
Silhouettes against a fiery sky.
The President is speaking
An announcer is saying
“Shock”
“Awe.”

Echoes in my skull—
We’ve bought these bombs;
We’ve bought these bombs.