Driving a Luxury Car in Baghdad
__________________________________
The roads are still too bumpy
When new tires roam
Over ruins of old palaces
And the scattered bones
Of the uncounted death
A Ford, a BMW
A Mercedes, a Honda
A spanky Cherokee
The fresh paints
Of cyan and magenta
Smell, for a second,
Like blood shed
For nothing!
Money grows faster
Than the new graves
In this civilized world!
American dollars are still
Among the beloved in hell
We are good at forgetting
Good at following orders
Rather than the cries of women
And their infants
Whose legs were too weak
And slow to run
From the rain of bombs
Which, ironically,
Also come from the sky above
Where is said
God dwells
Brothers,
Democracy is coming!!
---ZZ. 2004