{"id":12215,"date":"2021-09-16T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T09:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2021-09-16T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T09:27:23","slug":"poem-questioning-a-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2021\/09\/16\/poem-questioning-a-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: Questioning A Tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Questioning a Tank
\n<\/b><\/span>
\nInto the shocked, shucked shell<\/span>
\nof the hospital at Kunduz, which<\/span><\/p>\n

for ten days past, in streaming light<\/span>
\n(the season’s slant of sun), has spilled<\/span><\/p>\n

a steaming trail of twisted bricks,<\/span>
\nchewed up rails, a grieving mist \u2013 the site<\/span><\/p>\n

where the counted, cradled sick<\/span>
\nburned up<\/i>, the still un-<\/span><\/p>\n

bordered doctors tell, in beds<\/span>
\nthe red-blue bombers targeted<\/span><\/p>\n

and turned to smoking tar \u2013<\/span>
\ninto the murdered spectacle,<\/span><\/p>\n

a spangled, metal beast, a tank,<\/span>
\nhas since arrived, to crinkle<\/span><\/p>\n

underneath its feet<\/span>
\nthe very residues of war,<\/span><\/p>\n

a mounting dust-heap mingled<\/span>
\nin its wake, whose quiet particles<\/span><\/p>\n

now drift and sway,<\/span>
\ndissolving in the blue \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

as the learned pugilographer<\/span>
\nappears in print, enrobed<\/span><\/p>\n

in points of lucidation, the buff<\/span>
\nand cleanly Michael Newton,<\/span><\/p>\n

who, pending<\/span>
\nPentagon investigation, will clarify<\/span><\/p>\n

the one un-
\nanswered question<\/i> thrice<\/span><\/p>\n

for all concerned:<\/span>
\nWho had control, that day,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

of base-defensive protocols?<\/span>
\nWhy include<\/span><\/p>\n

a hospital<\/span>
\namong the targets pre-approved?<\/span><\/p>\n

And what<\/i>, he wonders,<\/span>
\nhappened on the ground?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Feature Image: Kabul, Afghanistan. 5th Nov, 2015. The damaged sign of the M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Kunduz is displayed at a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, 5 November 2015. A month after the US airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, the aid organisation has repeated calls for an inquiry. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD JAWAD\/DPA\/Alamy Live News.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questioning a Tank Into the shocked, shucked shell of the hospital at Kunduz, which for ten days past, in streaming light (the season’s slant of sun), has spilled a steaming trail of twisted bricks, chewed up rails, a grieving mist \u2013 the site where the counted, cradled sick burned up, the still un- bordered doctors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":12244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1688,1690,1691,5302,6030,6119,7087,7320,7341,7583,8849,9736,9737,9741],"class_list":["post-12215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-ciaran-orourke-cassandra-voices","tag-ciaran-orourke-poet","tag-ciaran-orourke-poetry","tag-kunduz-attack","tag-medecins-sans-frontieres","tag-michael-newton","tag-pentagon-investigation-of-kunduz-attack","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-questioning","tag-tank","tag-us-airstrike-kunduz","tag-us-airstrike-kunduz-poem","tag-us-involvement-in-afghanistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}