when I ask you
where you were
you tell me
"My friends
all have cancer."
the veins of health
the bones
cells supple and sinuous have snapped

across the ocean
in Sarajevo
planes careen off carriers
guns shoot civilians hauling
water in plastic jerry jugs

when they ask them
where they were
they say
"I never know if I will come back"
they say
"they shot at the market
with mortars and shells"

last decade in Islamabad
when I asked him what he does for a living
he said "I am a management consultant
to the Mujahadeen. I teach them how to use missiles"

weapons don't know
good guys from bad guys

if you ask me where I was
I cannot tell you
sometimes I was in a sunny meadow with butterflies
sometimes the cupboard flour box filled with earwigs
the journeys lengthen, then like sinews
snap back

© 1996 Jane Piirto (from Beyond the Memory and the Experience)