Sadia and the Drone

[Auset]

under predatory silver drone sky,
she lived where the sun had fled
Sadia was her name:

a soldier starched and ready safely bunkered afar
with warm coffee and loud music that drowned the blood --
sequined shiny bass high music rattling the speakers
knew all the words:
“Highway to hell
I'm on the highway to hell”

he knew the words but
did not know Sadia
“Livin' easy/Lovin' free/
Season ticket on a one way ride/
Askin' nothin'/Leave me be/
Takin' everythin' in my stride”

did not know a girl dreaming
of bread to dull the hunger and fire to mute the cold;
a child younger than romance
with numbers in her head counting stones
praying for a future beyond
the muzzle and mutations of men

the soldier knew her not; she
did not yet understand war
but her mother’s song was a memory
that rang like an enduring bell
in tiny vacant moments searching for
love among the rubble

soldier with singing bombs that whistle
over prayer villages and poppy fields;
women-in-circles hands always moving
smoothing the daily horror
marrying impotence and fear:
where women wed at 12

“highway to hell”

Sadia knew nothing of “collateral damage”,
words for people whose children could read,
get fat and chastise their parents
who paid for the heat in the winter
and cool in summer in homes that did
not show up in the crosshairs of bombs

like the bomb that laid open Sadia shredding
her softness, killing the hunger,
her burqa limp with blood, dirty from the dust
where death engorged and triumphant
was more alive than life itself

the song rose to his favorite part
an orgasm of violence and American privilege
“highway to hell
I’m on a highway to hell”
just-doin’-his-job Johnnie
heady from the kill
dreamed of another stripe
to smear across his arm
bugles and flags waving
and a sexy girl to welcome him home

[Kornelia]

Hello Auset,
Whew, what a story you weave around the song including deeper tragedies and suffering. Great work, chilling lines! ps, that acdc song brought me back memories (but thats another story)

kornelia

[dwells]

War is Hell indeed, and another nameless victim to all but the readers of this tale Auset. Killing from afar, depersonalized death from on-high; the heavens rain down white phosphorous hate that can't be quenched and another video game gladiator hopes to come home soon, and ply his trade to the highest bidder. Starkly told in all its remote tragedy; soon to visit a neighborhood near all of us (shudders) - Dan

[Chelle]

It is sad that so many innocent lives are lost in the pursuit of others' causes. Maybe someday we'll be able to put the violence aside and find a better way.