|
On April 23, 2019, a man in Sunnyvale, CA drove his car into
pedestrians he thought were Muslim |
[Happy] Sweet Sixteen, Iraq Conflict
by Leena Soman Navani
After Evie Shockley
A teenage girl’s skull
is partially removed to make room for the swelling.
A man rocketed his car
into a crowd of people.
He thought she came from
a Muslim family.
Seven others were injured in the crash.
The family is not Muslim
but they are brown.
The man is a veteran of Iraq, which was a place
before & after war. He might have PTSD.
He, too, has brown skin.
His surname is Peoples.
America must not ignore the threat
gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril,
we cannot wait for the final proof,
the smoking gun that could come
in the form of a mushroom cloud.
This happened in a place called Sunnyvale.
Witnesses heard the suspect say
I love you Jesus Thank you Jesus Praise Jesus
The suspect was once a sergeant, served more than five years.
The girl, whose soft mushroom cap brain was exposed,
was not yet born when this war began.
The police are treating the crash as a hate crime.
It’s traumatizing to these victims,
it’s traumatizing to the police officers who had to see the carnage,
it’s traumatizing to all members of the community who wonder about whether
these people
were targeted
because of their
race & religion.
Peoples has no criminal history, was serving
as a military contract auditor for the Defense Contract
Audit Agency prior to the incident.
Prior to the incident, he delivered food
to a Bible study group he attended.
Peoples’ mental state will be the ‘battleground’ of the case.
Prior to the incident, he was a gunner,
honorably discharged a driver driving around Sunnyvale
with a disassembled shotgun in his car.
Prior to the incident, he earned a degree
in accounting.
On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability
even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth.
We resolved then,
& we are resolved today,
to confront every threat
from any source
that could bring
sudden terror & suffering
to America.
The girl has a younger brother who wasn’t hit by the vehicle, but was hurt
when the car hurtled into the busy intersection.
The boy was not yet born when this war began.
Peoples received many awards for his service, including
Army Commendation Medal Iraq Campaign Medal Combat Action Badge
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
He was not yet born when this state of war began.
The daughter was the most severely hurt.
She is in a coma & fighting for her life.
None of us was born when the war state began.
& yet, all of us come of age warriors.
Every one of us a battleground a balance sheet an intersection of
innocence trauma terror
war
A teenage girl’s skull
is partially removed to make room for the swelling.
A man rocketed his car
into a crowd of people.
He thought she came from
a Muslim family.
Seven others were injured in the crash.
The family is not Muslim
but they are brown.
The man is a veteran of Iraq, which was a place
before & after war. He might have PTSD.
He, too, has brown skin.
His surname is Peoples.
America must not ignore the threat
gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril,
we cannot wait for the final proof,
the smoking gun that could come
in the form of a mushroom cloud.
This happened in a place called Sunnyvale.
Witnesses heard the suspect say
I love you Jesus Thank you Jesus Praise Jesus
The suspect was once a sergeant, served more than five years.
The girl, whose soft mushroom cap brain was exposed,
was not yet born when this war began.
The police are treating the crash as a hate crime.
It’s traumatizing to these victims,
it’s traumatizing to the police officers who had to see the carnage,
it’s traumatizing to all members of the community who wonder about whether
these people
were targeted
because of their
race & religion.
Peoples has no criminal history, was serving
as a military contract auditor for the Defense Contract
Audit Agency prior to the incident.
Prior to the incident, he delivered food
to a Bible study group he attended.
Peoples’ mental state will be the ‘battleground’ of the case.
Prior to the incident, he was a gunner,
honorably discharged a driver driving around Sunnyvale
with a disassembled shotgun in his car.
Prior to the incident, he earned a degree
in accounting.
On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability
even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth.
We resolved then,
& we are resolved today,
to confront every threat
from any source
that could bring
sudden terror & suffering
to America.
The girl has a younger brother who wasn’t hit by the vehicle, but was hurt
when the car hurtled into the busy intersection.
The boy was not yet born when this war began.
Peoples received many awards for his service, including
Army Commendation Medal Iraq Campaign Medal Combat Action Badge
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
He was not yet born when this state of war began.
The daughter was the most severely hurt.
She is in a coma & fighting for her life.
None of us was born when the war state began.
& yet, all of us come of age warriors.
Every one of us a battleground a balance sheet an intersection of
innocence trauma terror
war
Leena Soman Navani writes poetry, fiction, and criticism, and her writing has been featured with Ploughshares and Kenyon Review among other publications. For her work across genres, she's received support from the National Book Critics Circle, Catapult, Brooklyn Poets, BOAAT, Bread Loaf, the Visible Poetry Project, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, where she earned her MFA.