La Seductrice

I would feel like an Iraqi insurgent
would feel like when blown apart
by 50 caliber machine gun fire,

I would feel like six very young children
eviscerated by a car bomb
meant to further a cause,

I would feel like an American soldier
whose brain flies in pieces through desert air
after the roadside bomb explodes,

I would feel like an Iraqi policeman
gunned down in my police car
at an intersection,

I would feel like an Iraqi mother
looking at her bloody children
made unrecognizable by Air Force bombs,

I would feel like an American father
receiving the news that his son is no more
shot while on patrol protecting the oil pipeline,

I would feel like I should do something
and you would feel like you should do something
but we won’t.