Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                        A Burning Car in Baghdad


                    The delusion that by force you can impose the
                    Millennium on the human race is one of the most
                    dangerous delusions in existence.

                           ― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad


In the center of Baghdad a burning car
Illuminates long centuries of pain
Inflicted by schemes of improvement upon
A city of scholarship, wisdom, and art

Militias, commanders, air-strikes, and bombs
So clever that they can single out one car
Without harming another at the traffic light -
And somehow this will make the world all better

Dullard journalists will type “***-for-tat”
Because they don’t know anything else to say

And neither do I