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Duct Tape

DUCT TAPE

"Abdullah Thani Faris al Andzi lost both his legs in a U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan while he was employed as a humanitarian aide worker. After his first leg was amputated, he was arrested by bounty hunters and turned over to U.S. forces. While in custody, his second leg was amputated. He has been held at Guantanamo since 2002, where he has received inadequate medical treatment and often been forced to walk using a prosthetic limb held together only with duct tape."
- from "poems from Guantanamo: the Detainees Speak"

~~~~~

As the bombs rain,
they tell us they are for peace.
So I ask them:
Do flowers bloom
or grass grow
held in such chains;
or seeing humans
suffer such pains?
~~~~~
Mountains weep,
and I speak in tear filled oceans,
whose ebb and flow
erode my beach of hope;
all I have left are curses
told in Arabic qasid verses.
~~~~~
As the bombs rain,
ripping apart innocent people's limbs,
they say they are for peace.
And I ask:
will birds fly
and sing their songs,
or will they,
like so many of us,
have only plastic legs
held together with duct tape?

~~redzone 9.23.10

Author's Notes/Comments: 

There are still 175 prisoners being held at Guantanamo. The majority are known to have no ties to terrorism and have been cleared for release, but still remain and this was after the promise by Obama to "close down Guantanamo". So much for politicans and their election promises...

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©5 October 2012 - 11:16pm — redzone
5 October 2012 - 11:37pm — BloodShotLies
BloodShotLies's picture

And he went even further when

And he went even further when he signed the National Defense authorization act this past year. Expanded the powers of the Patriot Act to include US citizens on US soil. And the US government has no real definition of terrorism. Under the giant umbrella they've created, eventually peaceful and constitutionally protected protests (which are typically met with cointelpro tactics to incite violence) will be treated as terrorist acts.

8 October 2012 - 6:18am — allets
allets's picture

Grass In Chains?

I love poetry as propaganda and propaganda as poetry, I love yellow journalism as poetry and propaganda as journalism, to really mix my metaphors, I love it when Democratic Pres can not solve an exclusively Democratic institution problem that is guarded by a military with the biggest guns in history. My prayer is that attitudes and shouting at the man does not get President Barak Obama killed. It is at times like this that I really adore poetry written by poets who do not believe in God Our Father (the religious card played declares what will always be believed in). Forgive me, I guess I too am screaming at men, Stella L. Crews