How

How can you put its explosion back into the bomb?
How can you put her eyes back in their bloody sockets?
How can you put a scream back into shredded lungs?
How can you put their brains back into shattered skulls?
How can you put the joy back in the decapitated child?
How can you say it was all a mistake

When after all you built the bombs
Shipped and loaded the bombs,
Dropped and triggered the bombs
And afterward flew over the craters
To judge the effect of the bombs?

Do you check for useless limbs scattered like garbage
Or fragments of scalp like confetti at a birthday party?
Do you listen for the moans of those not quite dead?
Do you show your bombardiers pictures from a hospital bed?
Do you allow them to carry pictures of their own little kids
As they aim for buildings without thought of human dread?
Do you train them not to feel, not to grieve, not to cry?
Do you teach them that consequences don’t apply
And threaten or shoot those who refuse to comply?

When you come home to your velvet wife and
Your bright pesticide lawn, your healthy kids,
Your friendly neighbors, your sleek new Benz,
Your running water,
plenty of food
bomberless skies
air so conditioned
windows windexed
streets kept swept
songbirds calling
squirrels cavorting

How do you do it?