Son Avenges Father's Murder to Cheers of Thousands (AP)
by Robinson Dunham
|
I wonder if they sold popcorn
to the crowd awaiting the young son's rite of passage.
Did they clap or do the wave?
Did the scoreboard flip?
Was it 1-1 or
is there an extra point for
praising a God while pulling a trigger?
Standing just above his mother's waist at ten
he fired four shots into the man who
fired one into his father making
this young deliverer the oldest male in the family.
So mom, sis, and his six year old brother watched
him load the rifle
lonely among thousands
in the center of the dry dust sports field in Afghanistan.
Murder ringing in heads louder than a gun- blast's echo already but
these particular four bullets were wrapped in a page from the Quran and
wax- sealed by a judge
kissed by a king.
"Under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam,
relatives of a victim carry out the death sentence."
The fans were ushered out soon after.
The grounds crew had to prepare the field for
soccer in the evening.
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2024 by Red River Review. First Rights Reserved. All other rights revert to the authors. No work may be reproduced or republished without the express written consent of the author. |