If regime change in Iraq was good for Iraq,
If shock and awe was good for children, parents, anyone at all,
If it turned out well for American boys and girls
Soon summoned to patrol land-mined cities on foot,
And then bringing home to these shores such pain,
Such wounding, and grievances we all carry now,
Like burned-out tires around our American necks?
I want to know
If lying, flat-out lying, about weapons of mass destruction
Did any good at all for toddlers in the States,
Or teachers in Baghdad, Bethlehem, Damascus, Tel Aviv,
Or if Abu Grahib -- shame on us --
Impressed the whole wide world with
Visions of decency and democracy, a world made well?
I want to know
If the New York Times' celebration of B2 firepower
(How glorious, our weapons! How successful, our planes!
How well deserved, this destruction!)
Is something like those early days in Iraq,
How easy it all seemed, to bomb and destroy,
To take over cities and depose tyrants,
To terrorize a people, and then an entire region?
----
I want to know
If the child wailing for the father
His mother has just buried in Gaza,
For cousins incinerated at food stations in Gaza,
For a future that looks like rubble in Gaza,
If he's safer now, if he's a global citizen now,
If he'll ever sing a song or play a silly game?
I want to know
Who makes money on these things,
(Corporations, manufacturers, hedge funds,
Universities, pensions, churches?)
On the lies that are told to set such violence in motion,
On the destruction of proud cities, and the rage of whole peoples,
And the deaths of thousands, thousands, thousands?
On the lies that are told to set such violence in motion,
On the destruction of proud cities, and the rage of whole peoples,
And the deaths of thousands, thousands, thousands?
And I want to know
Who we will choose to be now,
Whether we will choose life now,
If we can stand before their tanks,
Their B2s, their drones, their weapons now,
To stop them from flying, from killing,
From lying again.
23 June 2025
As the US bombs Iran
DGJ
