Medic Recalls Detainee Chained to Cage
Like laundry, draped in neat pentameter.
He tended bullet wounds in the teenager’s
Back twice daily in a five-foot square
Crate at a U.S. lockup at Bagram.
The Pentagon defended what was done
To the chained and hooded prisoner
As sanctioned punishment of young Khadr.
The medic didn’t object; chaining was approved.
He borrowed him to translate for other captives.
He didn’t inquire how long they let him hang.
Shackled, the boy soiled himself. Beatings.
Threats of rape. Solitary. Prolonged cold.
It only makes page 6. The news is old.
The New York Times,
May 4, 2010; July 11, 2008
from And Short the Season, W.W. Norton, 2014
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