poems
prose
articles
reviews
books
guidelines
faq
about
bios
cover

links
home
  Chris Crittenden  
   
 
     
     

Soldier Turns Atheist

this embolism
blocking his will to pray,
it holds so much blood
that he can see villages of red,
mounds of coagulation.

did God lie to him
or the President who said
this was the will of God?

did Freedom really sanction

this?

all this pooling messy sticky pain,
disgusting shrieking-
not like children on halloween,
not like a movie.

no,

a real child
ripped apart, slaughtered
into chunks by a bomb,

pieces of little girl
raining down everywhere,
splatting and sticking,

a wild crucifixion.

one eyeball mashed,
the other ten feet away, looking
like a pollywog at the sky,
where peace should dwell,

and asking,
"is littered meat allowed in heaven"?

     
     
     
 
   
     
 
 
       
  Copyright © 2008 Pemmican Press and the author/artist represented.