Some time ago I went to a performance by a group called Malinky who sang a piece they had written about the women of Bosnia. Abu Ghraib was in the news, and I thought it needed something, too. This is what came to me.

1. He lay in his bed sleeping easy,
Till the man came and stood at his side,
And fixed him with one grim and glaring eye,
And reached out, and howled out, and cried.

2. "And how did you get past the guards at the door?"
He asked, and he trembled with fear.
"And how did you get through those doors and those locks,
And what are you doing here?"

3. "Oh, you've made me free of your doors," the man cried,
"And you've made me free of what's locked.
And those you command cannot keep away
The men they have tortured and mocked."

4. And he looked at the man standing naked there,
Hands tied, and a bag on his head.
And rolled over and mumbled "I know who you are,
You weren't tortured, because you aren't dead."

5. "And I've had enough of your whinging there,
And I've had enough of your lies.
For I've had enough of attorney's advice-
It's not torture if nobody dies.

6. "And why do you stand with your arms outstretched
As if you were Christ on the tree?
You will learn when you die that my god is not mocked,
When the torments of hellfire you see."

7. "It is one of those torments of hell to stand
With my arms stretched out to the sky.
But the tormentors aren't demons at your command
But men made just like you and I.

8. There are men in that prison, and women too,
Whose souls have been twisted & bent
Whose souls have been misled by that fatal lie
It's not torture if torture's not meant.

Penny