Losing her Parents

at age 5 at a night checkpoint in
Tal Afar, a mistaken U.S. shooting

She wails, bloodied hands
reaching out as if
groping for answers.

On the ground, blood spots
bloom like the scarlet
flowers on her dress

-- a pain never redressed.



Christopher T. George

See photograph by the late war photographer Chris Hondros at "Samar Hassan screamed after her parents were killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2005."

Also "Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later" by Tim Arango, New York Times, May 7, 2011