The Last Lie Poem by Bruce Weigl

The Last Lie

Rating: 4.8


Some guy in the miserable convoy
Raised up in the back of our open truck
And threw a can of c-rations at a child
Who called into the rumble for food.
He didn't toss the can, he wound up and hung it
On the child's forehead and she was stunned
Backwards into the dust of our trucks.

Across the sudden angle of the road's curving
I could still see her when she rose
Waving one hand across her swollen, bleeding head,
Wildly swinging her other hand
At the children who mobbed her,
Who tried to take her food.

I grit my teeth to myself to remember that girl
Smiling as she fought off her brothers and sisters.
She laughed
As if she thought it were a joke
And the guy with me laughed
And fingered the edge of another can
Like it was the seam of a baseball
Unfit his rage ripped
Again into the faces of children
Who called to us for food.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Martin Thomas 25 July 2014

Apologies if previous versions of this comment have been posted - they keep disappearing on my computer. Anyway...I think this is an excellent, brutal poem with a jagged edge of truth.

0 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Bruce Weigl

Bruce Weigl

Lorain, Ohio / United States
Close
Error Success