Nancy Scott

AT HOME IN ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN

America, will you remember this—
two goats, a dozen eggs, three wives,
and a flock of children?
After the storm boots, explosion and fire,
no one cared about the eggs in the sink,
except the camera panning the rooms.
A different story for the children,
some left without a father, tucked away
behind high walls, a blessing given the chaos
in the country—floods, bombs, shootings.
Theft too. You stole their father's body
and looted his home. And the wives'
endless quarreling over having to feed
more than twenty-five mouths.
When those bullets entered his body,
perhaps you did them a favor.


Nancy reads "At Home in Abbottabad, Pakistan":



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Nancy confesses: "When all the news was circulating about the death of bin Laden, I was especially drawn to a photojournalism account of what the cameras recorded when they entered the grounds. I was struck by the domesticity of the scene embodied in the image of a dozen eggs in the sink and despite everything else, how protected the children were in the walled compound."

NANCY SCOTT is the managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative in New Jersey. She is also the author of six books of poetry, her most recent Midwestern Memories is forthcoming from Aldrich Press in 2014. Her poetry has appeared recently in The Voices Project, Raven Chronicles, Verse Wisconsin, Journal of New Poets, Exit 13, and Slant. She lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. www.nancyscott.net