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In theatres of roiling dust,
one photo shines
above the desert's milky cast.
A PFC cradles an Iraqi boy
wounded during heavy battle
near Al Faysaliyah.
All four sleeves wear stains of blood.
This portrait is sharp
in reply to the cyclone of terror.
We promise them water and food.
Some eyes see our troops as sharks
that follow only scents of oil--
others see us bearing loaves
of bread to split among
the caves of hungry mouths.
I grab at hope and pray
we fill these wishing wells
with rivers of pure sacrifice,
all the while aware of truths
that lie in wait in caskets
and in mourning robes.
As bullets fly, as whipping berms
mix corpses laced with uniforms
and weapons protrude
like twigs on fallen trees,
I stretch to see entire wars
through lenses of this renaissance--
a ballet move of pointed toes
in quicksand riding to my chin.
Janet Buck is a six-time Pushcart Nominee. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including, most recently, PoetryBay, CrossConnect, Poetry Magazine.com, Offcourse, MiPo, Stirring, Runes, Niederngasse, Kimera, Southern Ocean Review, Ariga, Facets Magazine, and Three Candles. In 1999, Newton's Baby Press published her first print collection entitled Calamity's Quilt. Her work is forthcoming in The Montserrat Review, Recursive Angel, Red River Review, Coelacanth, and Zuzu's Petals Quarterly. Her second print collection, Tickets to a Closing Play, was the winner of the 2002 Gival Press Poetry Award; the book is scheduled for release in October of 2003.
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