AMERIKA SLAUGHTERS BABIES (2023)

I remember vividly
the last time I cried,
I’d received an envelope
full of photos of children who’d died…

Under the occupation
of the U.S. military,
In the middle east
in their efforts to carry

Out wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
to control and suppress,
Poor Arab people
and to possess

Their land their labor
their natural resources,
While pretending the danger
was directed at U.S. forces.

The children most babies
had died gruesome deaths,
There were hundreds
in the bloody throes of their last breaths.

Some had their heads exploded
some with limbs severed,
Their families and communities
in anguish as they weathered…

The pain of witnessing
the horrible ends,
To these innocent children
their young relatives and friends.

I could not help but cry
as I took in these sights,
Inflicted by hypocrites
fake champions of human rights.

I was imprisoned at the time
when these pictures came,
They were sent
by a comrade whom I won’t here name.

I’d made the request
for images to show,
In my drawings U.S. crimes
that many don’t know.

Are committed daily
against poor people on foreign soil,
whose lives are kept
in bloody turmoil.

Solely because Amerikans covets
the wealth of their lands,
And wants to have its
control in their own hands.

The guard who delivered
these pictures that came in the mail,
Stopped as he saw me pull
them out in my cell.

He was a veteran and remarked
that I must be sick,
For having someone send me such
horrible flicks.

I replied that it was
deranged indeed the images of those kids,
But the sick one was him and his military
and what THEY did.

For THEY WERE THE KILLERS
who’d slaughtered those children,
And not just a few
but millions upon millions.

And that the real offense he took
at seeing those babies who’d died,
Was being reminded of crimes
he’d shared in and wanted to hide….

By Kevin Rashid Johnson