Daily Poetry Challenge: Ripped from the Headlines

sings torture and economic uncertainty in equal fonts.

Bloody circuses in Times New Roman.

The Caesar of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, extends his thumb

over the roaring crowd. The arena is littered with the unwept bones

of the Ndebele. Mugabe's fat lions pick their teeth with the shards.

Still hungry, they drool for Tsvangirai off the appetizer platter

of the Movement for Democratic Change.

Tsvangirai, the new Prime Minister, has only one life to give for the bro-

ken country which killed his wife --less than a month after he was sworn into office.

Deputy Agriculture Minister jailed two days after his nomination announced.

Caesar's soldiers needed two days to secure "witness" testimony: depositions taken

from abductees. Hanged from a tree, held under water. A 74 yr old man thrust

in a deep freezer, scalding water poured over his genitals.

Beatings, arson, rape, kidnapping, imprisonment. Hammers in the tool belt

of Caesar's handymen. With these sharp nails they hope to build themselves

amnesty for prior beatings, arsons, rapes, kidnapping, and imprisonments.

"We wanted to find out if it would be possible to have amnesty

dating back to the 1980s," an official Spokeslion said.

"I'd rather rot in hell than agree to that," said Roy Bennett, the un-deputy

Agriculture Minister from his cell.

Bipartisan politics are never pretty. Decades of sanctioned genocide and torture: "Much

can be blamed on the old government collectively. But the post-March 29

violence and killings can be pinned down to only 12 people."

A dozen fat lions bare their teeth and roar.

"It's madness to try to go back into matters of history," said Mr. Mutasa,

Caesar's jackal and secretary for Administration.

On the road to Tsvangirai's house hundreds of mourners drum and chant

and avoid eye contact with journalists. Approached for interviews, they beg

not to be quoted by name. "They will kill us," one woman said.

Her eyes search the shadows for hunting lions. "They are everywhere."