Episode in the War against Error
by Alexis Lykiard
[ poetry - august 05 ]
Stockwell tube station, London, 21 July 05]
Hired guns hunted down one... Brazilian,
young naïf coldly rendered to death.
Did he run, guilty panicking Alien,
gasping out underground his last breath?
It seems he was seated - no hurry at first.
Did the marksmen yell boldly, as they'd rehearsed,
and pin flat the accused or rather, Accursed?
The name of this fair game is Kill-not-cure,
codenames and no packdrill, its aim unsure:
targets exist to be hit with each burst.
While passengers freeze, turn sideways in dread,
seven bullets point-blank blow open his head.
[Note: An eighth bullet hit 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes in the shoulder. Three more shots missed.]
