Lock, Stock, & Barrel
By Patricia Asuncion

After Assad’s first toxic attack, humane American Tomahawks locked
a stainless-steel line in Syrian sand,

garnered global praise
for avenging poisoned people, their suffering
looped on mass media.

America’s revived do-good image
might have survived, had the underbelly story stayed unspoken. Trailing the heroic strike, missiles and weapon makers’ stocks

garnered $5 billion plus promises of $52 billion to DOD.

Headlines the next year
of Assad’s poisons and American bombs, barreled and solidified
US corporate flags on foreign soil
for God-given profits.