SHAPES OF FREEDOM

“To return that great country to its own people...”
George W Bush: Operation Iraqi Freedom

The photo-journalists tell us,
The world, of that great country
Iraq;
Wind-swept deserts, installations
Camels and convoys pursue their solitary routes
Fixed, separate
Sometimes a clump of palms, oases
And those other
Lifelines from these living sands
Oil for food
Wonderful programme of exchange.

Ancient land of ancient rivers
Tigris
Euphrates
Resplendent histories of so many tribes
Abram of Chaldean Ur
Summer
Babylon
Assyrian Nineveh
Sands rich with myriad peoples’ lore

Tonight the lights are out
Baghdad is dark
Some gather, city-centre
But today
Our photo-images:

Worn old farmhouse, family portrait
Tender child with uplifted arms
Siblings alike
Father prostrate, averted eyes
Within a darkened room a mother prays
The soldier has entered her sanctuary
An overcrowded truck now
Inspection time
Silenced the heart-beat of the children’s eyes

This
A hospital
War’s horror comfort-zone

Somewhere along the roadway
Smart missiles mate their targets
Mothers’ guts seed the ancestral soil
Strewn their children
“Failed to stop at check-point.”

Tonight
The lights are out
Baghdad,
Baghdad!

A KHAN
St Joseph’s Village
San Fernando