Archilochos in Baghdad

Doug Anderson

Archilochos in Baghdad

There is less noise now except in your head.
The smirking rich have gone home with their take
and left you the rind and the flies.
The dead have gone home.  The maimed
with their lolling tongues.  All gone.
Children play in the empty husks of Hummers
and helicopters.  Watch you through the dust.
When you have gone they will come out
to take what you have not used, have not eaten.
Cannot remember why you came to this place.
Now they tell you to pack.
Go back to a place you imagined as home.
That has moved on beyond you and changed the locks.