BLOOD DIAMONDS

I met a man in the parking lot

sitting in his parked car

he told me stories

talked of his life

his death

he's died more than once

showed me his scars

bullets, entered here

cut out there

He showed me pictures

child soldiers

a village of burned bodies

children, charred

skin peeling away from their fragile frames

and mud

digging in the mud

men, boys, next to each other

next to other men and boys,

dead

covered in mud

naked

mud on their eyes

in their ears

on their penises

but still digging, the men and boys

looking for diamonds,

its the only way to stay alive,

digging, all day

you stop, they shoot

digging

maybe a mango for lunch

well, breakfast, lunch and dinner,

the same

green, not ripe

Maybe your best friend,

he finds a diamond

puts it in his pocket

or maybe mouth, safer

thinks he'll run,

buy his way away

free

winks, makes a sign like "shh"

you look away, scared

digging, digging

Then it's there,

the barrel at your head

then a gun is in your hand

you look up to see your friend

gun at his head

shaking his head, no, no

they're yelling at you,

kill him, shoot him

he is a cheater, a liar,

he must die

you saw him take a diamond

shoot him

or we shoot you both

now

You don't even care

dying

you've been dead before

your family is dead

you saw them shot

you were dragged away

to the rebel camp

in the cold jungle

what is it to die?

better

it doesn't matter

But you pull the trigger anyway

they kick his body in a ditch

in the mud

kick you in, too

dig

You dig

around your dead best friend

no tears

no feeling

just keep digging

that's all

He tells me,

looking at the green field

at students, playing

volleyball

soccer

running

I cry, he says

to look at this

You don't know what you have here

they say this boy is twelve,

he shoves a picture at me

look, is he twelve?

no, he is just a boy

the caption says the boy's name, 12, in Congo

fighting with Rebel forces

he shoulders an AK-47

peering into the distance

they are ten dollars there, he says

he is talking about the guns

people here, they say they like to shoot

I laugh

you like to shoot?

I'll take you to a place

where you can shoot

free guns, free bullets

shoot whatever you want

see if you like it

like to shoot

I cry, he says

people, they don't know

they wear diamonds

bling

and black people!

they have no idea

some don't care

they wear it anyway

But it's blood

those diamonds

they buy

they are blood diamonds.


© lindsy r. glick 2011