Monday, April 07, 2008

NO HATE CRIME CHARGES IN TORTURE CASE

by Amy Holman


First, I appreciate your subtle editorializing, Earthlink, filing this under strange news.
I agree that torture is not a form of love, a mercy, a forgiveness of difference,
that rat droppings are no aphrodisiac, even if hate this is not. Second, these mothers,
sons and daughters kiss with machetes and tuck in with shovels, so why not let them
court by slur, fondle with cable cord, toilet water, dagger? Why set an example now?
Still, top news is better, upon consideration of the 108 prior felony charges
among the six kidnappers, one the former swain of the woman whose skin was stripped
of some of its color. Sexual assault charges carry a longer sentence so the prosecutor
is leaving it at that, never mind the trigger word beginning with N that says I hate you.
Not so strange these days, a national problem, not news. Still, make it.



Amy Holman has been playing around with current news and/or headlines for a couple of years, here and there, including publications in Failbetter, Archaeology (online), Unpleasant Event Schedule, Rattapallax, Shade, and soon, on the Red Morning Press web site. She is the author of Wait For Me, I'm Gone, which won the 2004 Dream Horse Press annual chapbook prize. She writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction and work freelance as a Literary Consultant out of her tiny apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
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