WATERBOARDING: A NATIONAL ANTHEM

by Autumn Newman


My country ’tis of thee

Preferably the suspect will be naked

Sweet land of Liberty of thee I sing

Feet, hands and neck are tied to a board or table

Land where my fathers died

A thin cloth

Land of the pilgrims’ pride

Is placed over the face.

From every mountainside let freedom ring!

A steady stream of water

My native country thee

Is poured over the cloth,

Land of the noble free, thy name I love

Producing a drowning sensation

I love thy rocks and rills

Followed by unconsciousness.

Thy woods and templed hills

When suspect loses consciousness

My heart with rapture thrills like that above.

Sit on, or hit, the stomach.

Let music swell the breeze

Move away, as suspect is likely to vomit

And ring from all the trees sweet freedom’s song

At this point in the interrogation.

Let mortal tongues awake

Demand information

Let all that breathe partake

And repeat process

Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong

Until the desired information is obtained.

Our fathers’ God to thee

This is an ideal method

Author of liberty to thee we sing

Of information retrieval in that,

Long may our land be bright

“It causes great mental and physical suffering

With freedom’s holy light

Yet leaves no marks on the body.”*

Protect us by thy might, great God, our King!


*Historian Ed Peters as quoted in NPR’s online article "Waterboarding: A Tortured History" by Eric Weiner on 11/3/2007. The description of Waterboarding is taken from this same NPR article.


Autumn Newman attends the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program. She lives in Fresno and works as a teacher at Fresno City College. Her poetry has been published in Louis Liard Magazine, The Suisun Valley Review, AngelFace, and Calaveras Station.