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| “Nigeria has ordered the closure of all secondary schools in Yobe state after Islamic extremists massacred 42 people at a boarding school in the region.” --The Independent (UK), 8 July 2013 |
Do you smell the stench, America? in the vessels of fuel by Islamic extremists, in their vessels of dried and fresh blood? of burning flesh? of children at school? of wounded skin and bone? of ruptured tissue? of spilled brains? of a father's torment? of seeing his two sons? who, fleeing fires of Hell are shot to death? hacked to pieces? do you hear their cries? smell embered hearts? or is it a headline? buried with children? in fireworks of a different sort? the kind of American explosion in the sky? on the fourth of July? when we shoot the stars in bursts? when stepping over ashes of Western civilization, we light our fires? fiddle with grills? barbecue ribs buried in smoky sauce? and sniff the stifled air?
Lucille Gang Shulklapper is a poet, fiction writer, workshop leader mother, and grandmother.