An Eye for an Eye - Steve Trenam

[Lawrence Robinson]

An Eye for an Eye
	“God’s away on business.” Tom Waits

We are prisoners of war.
We sleep on the concrete floors
of our cells in the uniforms
we were wearing when captured.
No blankets.

Cells are emptied almost daily.
I ask the guard who speaks English,
where are they taken.
He says, “You kill us, we kill you.”
“Does that mean we are winning the war?”

In midafternoon of the second 
day without food, we are stripped 
of our uniforms and marched naked 
through the countryside to be lined up
along the edge of a bulldozed trench.

As the bulldozer idles,
the 19-year-old to my right
collapses to his knees, I bend 
down and help him to his feet.
Beads of sweat on his forehead,
trembling all over, a med student
who will never have a practice.

Before the spray of bullets 
riddles our bodies, one last thought:
Will my daughter ever experience
a birth besides her own?

	- Steve Trenam
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