Moonlit Poetry

Deception

the men in red hats arrived in a black car
(how many I know not
just that there were many)
(hats I mean)

the men in red hats
they came with colorful words and bright
pictures and rainbow stories
their words alluring and tasting of honey 
(i tasted poison but i did not listen)

they wove stories of promising futures
for us and our family and our land
from the same bright threads that wove their hats
(the thread became our nooses)

and they told us they told us that all we had to do
was sign on the line
i signed and they said NO not THAT way
sign like THIS
and they demonstrated with
loopy swirly letters (of their nonames)
and i followed because what did i know
they had red hats i had none

i signed with a flourish
the cursive letters in red ink
(how do you get red ink
in a land that does not write?)
and the loopy swirly letters
looped and swirled into the fine print

it was just as well for our death sentence
was there in the tiny print
and later i asked "why were
the letters so small"

and the men in red hats replied calmly
(resting the ax against our necks)
"if your deaths were to matter the letters would have been
BIGGER but they are small (so small) because they
are just like you"