To a Child of Baghdad
by David Ray, September 2002

Our bombs may blast you
to a better life. You and your vivid parrot
may even change places. We give you
a chance, at least, to better yourself.

Who knows, you may be born beneath
a lucky star next time, maybe live
in our land of milk and honey,
and do some bombing yourself.

They say you'll die this year,
that our bombs did it--the power outage,
polluted water, that sort of thing--
but they'd be stretching a point.

If you knew these bombs you would love them.
We draw faces on them. We keep them spit-
shined and give them pet names.
And they are smart--that's how they found you.

"To A Child of Baghdad" is in KANGAROO PAWS: poems written in Australia
For more information please visit http://www.davidraypoet.com