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| A government handout photograph showed weapon remnants displayed on a table near the ruins of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, where a precision strike reportedly killed 175 people, mostly children, on Feb. 28. The remnants have been identified by The Times as components of a modern, U.S.-made Tomahawk missile. Credit...IRIB, via Telegram |
It was not the Israelis, after all,
who triple tapped the school in Minab.
It was US, according to the Times—
our bombs
that blasted babies into doll parts,
scattered them among the concrete-
silica dust of their classrooms.
But it was always our bombs, really–
Arab Salim and Jabalia, Biden’s
red line to Rafah. Bombs with
our names on them. Cruz and
Haley chickenhawked in Sharpie,
mine and yours scratched san-serif
onto the shells in bolder relief with
each paycheck deposited.
I read the article about Minab
during my planning period, and
it lingers with me now around
this crater-quiet classroom.
The kids are taking a test, but I
don’t care whether they pass it.
I just want to talk to them.
I just want to believe that it's
not too late to talk, that it’s
not too late to believe.
Something about the way the
big vent grumbles when
the air kicks on reminds me:
the surprise lockdown drill
has to be this week or next.
They’re quiet, like now,
the drills at least.
The kids are used to them.
Winder and Uvalde, Gaza and Minab.
Maybe bullets stop when bombs do.
I remember now why that vent rattles—
I took out most the screws that hold
it to the wall, and a few more outside.
The maintenance guy showed me how
to kick and climb our way out there
in case we ever need to flee, to run
outside, unafraid as we are of a
brush smoke sky.