The Tailor of Al Hamdaniyah.

• Author: Wilson, Eliot
• Position: Poem

Because he wore a suit and seemed of high-value and would name no terrorists, knowing none, they stripped and hooded the old man, the village tailor, and hung him by his wrists from a mulberry tree that grew by the river. The old man knew only thank you and please in English which he said through the night to the sound of the Tigris and the sound of the wind. He hung from the tree, strange fruit, five days. Piñata man or Muslim ham , the Americans called him and burned his feet with their lighters when he seemed to sleep. Five days it took for his brother to get word and travel to Mosul and bring his release but by...