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     ))                                                                (( 
    //                       "Burial of the Dead"                       \\
   ((  03/02/02                   by X-tabai                   anada512  ))
    \) ________________________________________________________________ (/

 //(I will show you something different...)//

 In the deep shadows of a rocky red desert
 my father showed me how to shoot,
 tucking the rifle under his long arm and
 cupping the barrel like a lover’s chin.
 //Don’t aim with your hands,// he said,
 //aim with your eyes. Don’t lock your elbows,//
 he said, //the recoil could break you.//
 He cracked the air with a shifted finger,
 and far away in the sun-bleached shrubs
 a small form exploded in a cloud of blood.

 //(I had not thought death had undone so many...)//

 Shielding my face, my mind conjured
 Medusas reflected in shimmering heat;
 no eyes can ignore the petrifying sight.
 The acrid smell of silence stretched
 dry and brittle across the sword-sharp light.
 //Your turn,// he said, holding out the gun.

 //(I was neither living nor dead, and I knew nothing...)//

 I tried to explain that my curiousity
 had hardened to stone with the rest of me;
 I could not speak. My breath was marble.
 A spasm of wind spat dirt at my hair
 and buried my shoes in shallow sand.
 High above my wide, unseeing eyes,
 the static blue sky crackled and sang,
 //I will show you fear in a handful of dust.//

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    /|/|                                                                    `
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