Susan Bright: "Girl With Fragment"


 

Copyright © 2003 by Susan Bright, Alan Pogue, and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 

Girl With Fragment 

Susan Bright 

 

  

                 

 

 



Bright and Pogue 2 

 

 
 Copyright © 2003 by Susan Bright, Alan Pogue, and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 

Say it's true, 

for the sake of argument, 

say one could 

reduce a country 

to one person, 

or believe George 

who loves freedom 

must be allowed 

to take out Saddam 

who doesn't. 

Say it's true, 

for the sake of argument, 

that a single person 

could symbolize 

an entire culture. 

Say what works 

for one person, works 

for everyone. 

Say one person could represent all people, one species our vast earth, 

assume for the purpose of debate this is a credible way to think 

about reality, or history, or at all. 

Say, for now, we allow a single human being to represent Iraq. 

I say we choose this ten-year-old Muslim girl in Al Deer, 

holding a missile fragment, Christmas, 1998. 

Her finger tips are radiant. The embroidery on her scarf is delicate 

and fresh. The missile fragment which she holds up for the world 

to see came from the rubble of a school. 

I say, we choose her. 

  

 

From "The Layers of Our Seeing" by Susan Bright, Muna Hamzeh and Alan Pogue. Plain View 

Press, $14.95. To order email: sbright1@austin.rr.com, or telephone (US) 1-800-878-3605, 1-512-441-

2452.