How to Say 'Hello' in American
Dedicated to the man I almost killed; and the woman I did...
(Ben Korman served for a total of six years in the U.S. Army Infantry, from 2016-2022. Between 2020-2021, he was deployed to the Horn of Africa as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom, where he served as a machine-gunner. Photo courtesy of the author.)
Somalia is known as a nation of poets…
Something else you probably didn’t know -
That their children learn to wave
With their middle-fingers, outstretched
Or with their thumbs-cocked, and their
Pointers-pointing
Which might be mistaken for aiming
All the while, smiling
Because the soldiers had taught them
That this was how we said ‘Hello’
In American
…Which might be mistaken for ‘goodbye’
And then, of course,
There were the
Amputees, especially
Child amputees,
Who also found a way to
Show their white-teeth and
Wave
Their phantom limbs -
Hoisted
Which might be mistaken
For surrender…
- Do not mistake this for poetry
Poets confessing
To killing poets
Is not poetry
Neither is it metaphor, rather
An Olde-English way
Of spelling war
Instead, the poetry you are
Looking for
Can be found
From inside the broken-mouth
Of a woman without a tongue
Who can still manage to say
‘American; not humanitarian’
After denying her water
And for the third day
In
a
row…
Or in the way
A cellphone can be considered
Weapon-enough
To bait bullets
From our crucifixed eyes
Look,
I know this may all seem
Like crossing-hairs, and
Splitting-eyes
But what I am trying to say
Is this:
This is not a war
Anymore
Than a drive-by shooting
Is a war
‘American; not humanitarian’
And she said all this without a
Tongue, or water
For three whole days
Only, we didn’t then understand
Until we found her again
Face-down in a wadi, half-
Sunken in sand
Already pregnant with bloat
As she floated on air, and an empty
Stomach
The hollow after-taste of the
Words she said
- Heavy in the mouth
- Light in the head
As it stretches you out
And open
Noise spilling
As it does, with
Explosion
😢