photo/Al-Rubaye


Body Count

We reach the magic number,
two thousand American dead,
but, at least, the Iraqis

have a brand new constitution.
They might not have democracy,
but they have the paper

that lies about freedom
just like back here
in the good old U.S. A.

Two thousand dead and counting,
the number keeps mounting
and that ain’t counting the wounded

and the hearts which break back home
and the tears that fall back home
and that’s not counting the Iraqi dead.

As we learned from the Viet Nam War,
nothing was gained by fifty thousand dead
except a new minority.

Henry’s friend Jenny Tran
whose father and mother
were killed by the Viet Cong

remembers blood pouring down
the street of her village---our village now.
Two thousand dead and counting.

Two thousand dead and counting.
Two thousand dead and counting.
Two thousand dead and counting.