Iraqi Prison Photos

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Indignity piled on indignity.
Bodies piled on bodies.
No puppeteers for these humps
of  stringless marrionettes.
Nakedness piled on nakedness,
defeated expressions ontop of
defeated expressions,
this is a mountain of shame.
No soldier should climb it.

Tip of this mountain
touches Allah's strange heaven,
each private area grew familiar,
each nether area, squeezed together,
forest of embarrassed flesh.

There was laughter.
There was pointing.
There may be hell to pay;
Lady Liberty squinting,
desert sand kicked up,
awful particles in her eyes.
I cannot forget the easy days
when Liberty's eyes were clear,
no residue from rubble,
no residue from mideast sand.


© Lamont Palmer

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