Janissaries

One thing only

Brothers and sons volunteered

Or taken away by

Force, one thing only

At Ampatuan, Maguidanao,

Andijan, Tucson Tripoli

and Cairo,

From the line between

A hunched and shielded

Mob and the

Brothers with swords machetes

And guns, the seraphs at

Luxor Acteal las abejas the

Janissaries in Cyprus

Brought with them only what

They had been taught

To do, the line between them,

Brothers and sons

Was punishment to whom

They were delivered was

Scattered to limbs and torn

Tortured buzzard wheeling in

The sky, was tangled

Doubt

And screaming jannisary

Srebrenica and villages of

Algeria

Hungerford Bogside Wounded

Knee, the blood flows just

The same from

Brothers and sons their women

And babes in arms at Wola and

Kalavryta and

No Gun Ri.