SLEEPLESS IN WAZIRISTAN
The Waziris call them ‘bangana’ (Pashto
for ‘buzzing wasps’) as they drone day and night –
like Doodlebugs in perpetual motion –
endlessly visible, unremittingly
audible, five thousand feet above
the clay-walled villages and towns, the markets
and the farms, the madrassas and the schools,
until some CIA operative,
in a Nevada mountain bunker,
or RAF personnel near Lincoln,
wakes and, after his/her double espresso
and cranberry muffin, identifies
the true enemy and left-clicks the mouse.
Note: the piece has subsequently been published at http://thirdsundaybc.com/2012/12/
John Huddart
November 12, 2012Such on-form observation. Drama withheld – peaceful, domestic, ordinary. Then more domesticity from the brave new free-world. Then that mouse! Ouch! Even the title with its echo of “Sleepless in Seattle” lends it’s part. More! More!
zem
November 12, 2012Sleepless in Waziristan?…..we should all be sleepless about this. Our turn next? It is only a question of time I suppose.
Ged Hayes
November 18, 2012The simplicity of the poetic form beguiles the horror of the situation, all the more poignant at this time of renewed horror in the Middle East.