“We must have burned at least five hundred of those things.”
Thus Makiguchi, matter of factly
and with a calm that shocked as much as it disarmed,
informed his grim tribunal of prosecutors,
nodding to the display of amulets
that awaited his admission or denial –
a paper jury for a summary trial.
Symbols of the offers with attached strings
which would free him from a prison filled with looters
and rapists if he would agree to leave unharmed
“the nation’s hopes and dreams.” More exactly,
he’d be forced to surrender Buddha to the war.
Thus, his sweep through myriad suburban hamlets
to collect and destroy them by the score.
“I’ve burned five hundred, and I’d burn five hundred more!”
[Previous: Inviolable]