By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Cities Have Scars
Cities have scars
war wounds
that maim walls of viscera
neighborhoods live with
long after
the instruments of infliction
are dust
Cities have scars
decapitated domes
cauterized arteries
bearing witness to gain’s loss
Cities have scars
fractures open and closed
abrasions cosmetically dressed
festering with infections
after armies are ghosts
and fortune’s flags
fallen
Cities have scars
visibly worn as reminders
that precision bombing isn’t precise
and surgical strikes
are targets of opportunity
sweeping
the untreated production of poverty
under carpets of napalm and cigar smoke