Baghdad Vacation

We fly in by
Russian cargo plane
fearing for our lives,

landing with a thud
we breathe
a sigh of relief for now.

A contact has
acquired three bicycles
which we

will pedal
all the way
to the Green Zone.

The one thing
about this country
that overwhelms you

is the dust.
This is a desolate place
getting destroyed every day.

The Iraqis
hate the Americans,
don’t be fooled at home.

We finally arrive
at our hotel,
broken-hearted.

We are
under no illusion now,
this will become

a conservative Moslem state.
Allah shadows
the American troops,

the soldiers turn
nervously around,
but they can not see him

blinded as they are
by their own American-biased
wrong-headed point of view.