Philippines, March 7, 1906 From the archives— a photograph taken on the crater rim of Mount Dajo after assault 272 men of the 6th Infantry 211 men of the 4th Cavalry 68 men of the 28th Artillery Battery 51 Sulu Constabulary 110 men of the 19th Infantry and 6 sailors from the gunboat Pampanga In the foreground a child's foot rests on the brow of another A body away could that be his sister Her dark hair still neat in its ponytail A whole village in the ditch— Softness of homespun garments their tattered elegy A pale breast and smudged throat tilts toward the sky like some marble goddess defaced I cannot look at the white men standing above them with their officious hats Their cocked knees and overheated guns Each one's the crooked bow of elbows Each one's the nonchalance of war This is the Bud Dajo massacre where more than 900 Muslim Filipinos were killed defending a settlement where they'd retreated to plant rice and potatoes weave mats from forest fronds 18 Americans lost their lives For every white soldier here a calculus of 50 native bodies
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