To an Iraqi Child
by David Krieger, April 2005

for Ali Ismail Abbas

So you wanted to be a doctor?

It was not likely that your dreams
would have come true anyway.

We didn’t intend for our bombs to find you.

They are smart bombs, but they
didn’t know that you wanted to be a doctor.

They didn’t know anything about your dreams
and they know nothing of love.

They only know how to find their targets
and explode in fulfillment. 

We call them smart, but they cannot be trusted
with dreams. 

After all, they are only gray metal casings
with violent hearts. 

They do only what they were created to do. 

It isn’t their fault that they found you. 

Perhaps you were not meant to be a doctor.