Poem In Your Pocket (Hawaii Edition)

Thousands tethered like cattle, herded like sheep
into the mountains, the suburbs, the city squares,
into the gullies and waterfront,
to be skewered like pigs, mounted from behind like goats,
castrated, pummeled senseless, clubbed to death,
to be buried alive in ditches dug by themselves,
buried to their waists, their guts ripped out by dogs,
to be run over by tanks, drowned in the river without pity,
dowsed with acid, sprayed with gasoline and then set on fire,
locked in their homes which were then set on fire,
to be propped up for bayonet drills,
hung by their tongues nailed to wooden boards,
to be mutilated, their faces pierced with needles,
ears hacked their eyes gouged out,
slivers of skin carved out, strip by thin strip,
penises cleaved off to be dried and consumed,
to be assembled together to be machine gunned
or to be blown up by hand grenades,
or one by one to be shot in the back by the side of a road,
to be stabbed, disemboweled, dismembered,
to be shoved into icy ponds, their frozen corpses
like floating logs used for target practice,
row upon row to be forced to kneel upon the shore
and then decapitated by swords slicing through necks,
severing flesh, crushing bone, their heads flying off,
torsos spurting twin fountains of blood,
crumpling into the mud, only to be dumped into the river
by the next row of men ready to take their places.

And then it was the women’s turn.

Wing Tek Lum is a Hawaiʻi businessman and poet. His first collection of poetry, Expounding the Doubtful Points, was published by Bamboo Ridge Press in 1987. His latest work is a book of documentary poetry based on the Nanjing Massacre. The Nanjing Massacre: Poems will be available to purchase this Summer 2013 at the Bamboo Ridge Press website. Check the website for one of Wing Tek Lum’s many readings and appearances.