Seppuku

After the barbarians
came through,
there was

no difference
between the open desert
and the town of Fallujah.

They were Huns,
they were Normans,
they were Saracens,

they were Vikings,
they were Nazis---
they were Americans.

The crumbled buildings
don’t really matter,
but the crumbled lives

reach down
to the very root,
(not of Iraqi culture),

but the
very root
of America,

the root is rotting
and cannot support
the weight above.