Whatever I learn makes me angry to have learned it.
The new missiles can detect a fly's heartbeat
atop a pile of rubble from 6,000 miles away.
That flies have hearts, 104 cells big, that beat.
And because of this knowing:
a pile of rubble.
The prophets came to participate in suffering
as if to an amusement park, which makes
our suffering the main attraction.
In our brochure:
a father's grief over this dead father,
the thorn broken off in a hand.
My empire made me happy
because it was an empire, cruel,
and the suffering wasn't my own.
SOURCE: Pilgrim Bell: Poems, poetry collection by Kaveh Akbar, Graywolf Press, Minnesota, USA, 2021.