A new poem by Tusiata Avia.

How to make a terrorist

First make a whistling sound
which is the sound of a bomb
just before it lands on a house.

Then make an exploding sound
which is the sound of the bomb
which kills a father, decapitates a mother,
roasts a little sister and shreds a big brother and his best friend.

Next, never let that smell leave the only survivor’s nostrils
even if she stands at the edge
of the barred sea and breathes.

Next, make a walking sound
which is the sound of the survivor’s feet
fleeing and fleeing

and fleeing and fleeing.
Sometimes make it a running sound
and sometimes –

when there is food falling from the sky –
make it a pushing and a clawing sound.
These sounds can feed the survivor and her children

but not all the survivors and all the survivors’ children.
Sometimes, make the fleeing sound a shuffling
or dragging or puffing or wheezing sound.

Sometimes when the survivor’s feet are not moving
make a crying sound or a screaming sound
or a silent sound.

The silence could come when the survivor is sleeping or hiding
or the silence could come if the survivor is dead.
If the survivor is lucky, then, please make more bomb sounds

and tank sounds
and then sniper sounds.
These are also the sounds that can take away all sound.

Finally, make a baby sound or a toddler sound.
This sound comes from under the ground
which is not the ground but a flattened building.

This is where babies can be born and mothers die
this is where toddlers can be trapped.
And sometimes

if the baby or the trapped toddler is loud enough
and the survivor can dig down deep enough
and pull the baby out

while it is still making living sounds
or maybe dying sounds –
then, this is a good way of making a terrorist.