On Half-believing News Reports the US is Returning to Bagram

So, we are creeping back like Jeff Bridges

in The Old Man

In the Shomali Valley where seasons occurred

before men came to feel and name them

Afghanistan’s gnarled finger of time points

to another invader returning

As a soar of C-17 Globemasters appears above mountains

and drops to Bagram

But in the orchards and fields spread around the airfield

veiled women in headscarfs, men in tunics barely notice,

Hardly look up, at the power of American dollars

flying over them, winning over even their Supreme Leader

With his hardened Deobandi heart and impoverished

country of poor workers, beggars, sadistic soldiery

****

We won’t return to give them any kind of government

in the image of democracy — already tried, failed

We won’t do anything to let women escape their homes,

no longer cover their faces, swallow their tongues

Whatever geopolitical motivation: attack plans against Iran,

because China’s an hour away, a combat boot pivot to Asia

No matter the reason, whatever massive grease payment

to these turbaned, hard-bitten America-haters

Let the cargo planes land, let soldiers climb back into guard

towers, let the Apache helos circle,

Seal teams hike mountains to clear attackers, let data

from satellites rain down again to decryption receivers,

Just use this offer-the-Taliban-can’t-refuse power for one

noble human thing, too: make them let girls go back to school

A US Army combat veteran, Steven Croft lives on a barrier island off the coast of Georgia.  His latest chapbook is At Home with the Dreamlike Earth (The Poetry Box, 2023).  His work has appeared in online and print journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.