The Mills of the Gods

The former leader of a small 
southeast Asian nation sits 
in a jail cell awaiting trial 
at the Hague. Well-appointed, 
with its own kitchenette, but 
jail nontheless. When the petition 
for his interim release is denied,
his followers weep and embrace
carboard standees. Elsewhere,
families of victims in his "war
on drugs" follow the news by video
link, and clap. They clutch pictures
to their chests too— of husbands 
and children felled by bullets 
fired by death squads, masked 
and riding tandem on motorcycles.