DRONE

...Let this be the Body
through which the War has passed.
--Frank Bidart

somewhere I did not learn mow down or mop up • somewhere I
wouldn't hear your father must come with me or I must fingerprint
your grandmother can you translate please • the FBI has my cousins'
computers • my father says say whatever you want over the phone •
my father says don't let them scare you that's what they want • my
mother has a hard time believing anything's bugged • my father
and I always talk like the world listens • my father is still on the
bus with contraband papers under his seat as uniforms storm
down the aisle • it was my job to put a cross on each home with
dead for clearing • it was my job to dig graves into the soccer
field • I wrote red tracksuit • I wrote Shahida, headless, found beside
Saad Mosque • buried in the same grave as the above • I wrote
unidentified fingers • found inside Oldsmobile car • I wrote their
epitaphs in chalk • from my son's wedding mattress I know this
mound's his room • I dropped a knee and engaged the enemy •
I emptied my clip then finished the job • I took two steps in and
threw a grenade • I took no more than two steps into a room
before firing • in Haditha we cleared homes Falluja style • my
father was reading the Koran when they shot him through the
chest • they fired into the closet • the kitchen • the 90 year old
standing over the stove • just where was I • uno a uno tu cara en
todos los buses urbanos • Here lie the mortal remains of one who in life
searched your face • call me when you get home • lets miss an
appointment together • lets miss another flight to repeated strip
searches • that Haditha bed • magenta queen sheets and wood-
shelved headboard and blood splattered up the walls to the
ceiling • they held each other • they slept on opposing ends
wishing one would leave • mother doesn't know who I am
anymore • I write Mustapha Mohammad Khalaf, 15 months old • I
write Here lies an unknown martyr, a big security guard with a blue
shirt, found near an industrial area with a chain of keys • Martyr
unknown, only bones • they ask if I have anything to declare then
limit my response to fruits and nuts • an American interrupts an
A and B conversation to tell me you don't have to do anything you
don't want to do • he strikes me as a misstep away from she was
asking for it • what did you expect after fishing Popov from a
trash bin • what did you expect after accepting a marbled palace
• they drag the man who killed my uncle out a hole • they
inspect him for ticks on national television • no one in my
family celebrates • when FBI knocks I tell them I don't have to do
anything I don't want to do they get a kick out of that • she just
laid there and took it like a champ • she was dying for it • at a
protest a man sells a shirt that says My dick would pull out of Iraq •
my mother tape records my laugh to mail bubblewrapped back
home • my mother records me singing Yeh shabe mahtab mah
meeyad to khab • I am singing the moon will come one night and
take me away sidestreet by sidestreet • sitting on a pilled
suburban carpet or picking blue felt off the hand-me-down
couch • the displaced whatnots • I practice the work of worms •
how much I can wear away with no one watching • two
generations ago my blood moved through borders according to
grazing and seasons • then a lifeline of planes • planes fly so
close to my head filled with bomblets and disappeared men •
scaffolding sprouts nooses sagging with my dead • I burn my
finger on the broiler and smell trenches • my uncle pissing
himself • shopping bags are legs there is half a head in the
gutter • I say Hello NSA when I place a call • somewhere a
file details my sexual habits • some tribunal may read it all back
to me • Golsorkhi, I know the cell they will put me in • they put
me onto a crooked pile of others to rot • is this what happens to
a brain born into war • a city of broken teeth • the thuds of
falling • we have learned to sing a child calm in a bomb shelter
• I am singing to her still

(previously appeared in Witness)