And iron is circling the place where I sleep." (1)

Didn't Jefferson tell us there would be no punishments without due process of law?

"I am sorry my brother

That I cannot help the elderly, or the widow, or the little child".

Didn't the Bill of Rights promise the right of the people to be secure in their persons?

He was bombed by the United States. Caged at Guantanamo. Now he is a double amputee.

Benjamin Franklin wrote, "No cruel and unusual punishments shall be inflicted."

It was supposed to be We the People.

Are we the people? Or are we now Putzi, Spitzi, and Freytag? (3)

Let's make America great again.

Did you know that Adolph Hitler wanted to make Germany great again?

Ah, but Guantanamo is an exception.

Was Babi Yar an exception? "I'm in a cage. Surrounded and trapped, I'm persecuted, spat on. slandered."

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

Was it self-evident that American soldiers would autograph Fat Man and Little Boy? That Colonel Tibbetts would say, "I did what I was told." But you killed so many innocent civilians. "That's their tough luck for being there".

The children at Idlib, did they ask to be gassed? Is it their tough luck for being there?

You will write.

"After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears, how can I now write?"

You will write.

"We have no paper and pencil. We write using toothpaste."

"America, you ride on the backs of orphans and terrorize them daily. I was humiliated in the shackles."

It is only America who dropped atomic bombs.

"The leaders of the tavern are raging and they stink of vodka and onions. Kicked aside by a boot, I lie helpless. In vain I plead with the brutes, as voices roar: 'Kill the Jews. Save Russia'".

So we have to kill the Muslims, to save America?

Humans composed the Ave Maria, the Prelude and Fugue, cantatas, concertos, and rhapsodies.

"Humans are addicted to war. Numbers of dead are counted against numbers of bombs dropped. Patriotism soars. Leaders beam. Winners brag."(2)

Would you like to go to Nauru? It's a tiny nation, after all. Near Papua, New Guinea.

Children are abused there. You can get marijuana from the guards in exchange for sex. Your official name: a registration code with letters and numbers. One prisoner said: "Sometimes I cut myself, so that I can see my blood and remember, 'Oh yes! I am alive.'"

"I am sorry, my brother

The shackles bind my hands

And iron is circling the place where I sleep."

How many babies drowned at sea? How many mothers behind them?

How could we sell life jackets that did not work?

"I am sorry my brother

That I cannot help the elderly, or the widow, or the little child."

c. Corinne Whitaker 2017

(1)In red, "Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak", Marc Falkoff, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2007, reprinted with permission.

(2)war

(3) Members of Hitler's inner circle

(4)I have just learned that an exhibit of art by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay may be censored by the Pentagon. "Ode to the Sea: Art at Guantanamo Bay", is now being shown at John Jay College in New York City. The Pentagon is threatening to destroy the works, stating that "art produced by detainees at Guantanamo Bay remains the property of the U. S. Government".