• The Smudge on My Daughter’s Face
    a reaction to bombings in Iraq

    the rain beat back the smoke
    pummeled the gritty clouds down to their source
    revealed, piece by piece, the crater of their birth

    first a rugged wall with the jagged edge of a broken bottle
    a lone curtain too stunned to flap in the wind adorns
    the blown out window rimmed with diamond baby teeth
    that wait for a reaching hand to finally fall
    upon the ripped torso of a faded doll

    whose button eyes dangle to each side
    while one arm smolders with a lackluster fire
    in the stretched creases of her dress
    lie grits from a dip in the breakfast cereal
    ground in by constant hugging
    clinging in the dark night fear of waiting
    for Today

    the sudden blow laden with finality
    empty eyes stuck open in shock
    to stare upwards at the dull, sullen sky
    a young girl’s grimy hand brushes the beloved doll
    one ripped torso to another

    the wails of broken hearts rise while
    a child’s ragged dress flaps in the whistling wind
    as the grit of the bomb’s explosion settles on her beloved face