Demigod’s Gotta Eat

Salma, little girl killed while waiting for ambulance

Mahmoud and Abdel, ambulance drivers killed on way to save Salma

IDF soldiers, armed with bombs made in U.S.A.

Raytheon contractors, good at math and bad at ethics

Jews, killed en masse, over, and over,

And over across Europe, time, space

Palestine, under siege since 1948

The British Empire, collapsed

Nations, free

Damocles’ sword, hanging

Over Gordian knot, intrinsicate

Solomon’s judgement, nameless woman’s

Nameless child yet-unhalved

Each comma, clean and separate

Masks the churning offal trough of slaughter

That keeps the world ordered, understandable, consumable

To our liking

Noah Soltau teaches about art, literature, and society to the mostly-willing. He is Managing Editor of The Red Branch Review. His most recent work appears in Eunoia Review, SBLAAM, Still: The Journal, and elsewhere. He lives and works in East Tennessee.