Day 1,054

Amra

A ten-year-old girl
shot in the back
while eating. Sitting
and eating. What soldier
in possession of what drone
fixed her in his gaze,
in his deadly ambition?
What soldier — maybe eight
or nine years older
than the girl, probably still
remembering what it was like
to be ten — what kid soldier
in his scrupulously tutored sadism
decided, at that moment,
to kill a ten-year-old child
with a shot to her back?
The girl’s grandmother is sobbing.
What did she do? she asks
over and over. She was eating.
What did she do to them?
Inconsolable. Remembering
the child singing, laughing.
Speaking her first words.
Taking her first steps.
Now lying motionless
on the ground, bleeding
her vibrant bright life
into the dirt.