Terminus

Here is a piece of required reading 
at the end of our century 
the end of a millenium that began with the crusades

The transcript of an interview 
between a Red Cross doctor 
and a Muslim girl in Bosnia 
twelve years old 
who described her rape by men 
calling themselves soldiers 
different men every night one after the other 
six seven eight of them 
for a week 
while she was chained by the neck 
to a bed in her former schoolhouse 
where she saw her parents and her brothers 
have their throats slit and tongues cut out 
where her sister-in-law 
nineteen years old and nursing her baby 
was also raped night after night 
until she dared to beg for water 
because her milk had run dry 
at which point one of the men 
tore the child from her arms 
and as if he were “cutting an ear of coin” 
(the girl’s words) 
lopped off the child’s head 
with a hunting knife 
tossed it into the mother’s lap 
and raped the girl again 
slapping her face 
smearing it with her nephew’s blood 
and then shot the mother 
who had begun to shriek 
with the head wide-eyed in her lap 
shoving his gun into her mouth 
and firing twice