I can't get this grotesque image out of my mind
by Laura Petersen
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Uniform points a gun
(My training says I must Shoot To Kill -- heart, lungs, head)
at a desperate woman clutching
Pampers spilling
(five-finger discount)
as they float
from the flooded shops of New Orleans.
(Can they have a clean diaper?)
A desperate woman.
no place to lay her children down
no wet breast to nurse them
no unsoiled place to bury her waste or theirs
A desperate woman.
An American refugee.
Our peripatetic President speaks: this is not acceptable.
Looters will be shot.
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