Parable of the Dictator's Body Doubles

Intelligence believed one or two doubles
might be found below the capital
or in the peasant's humble goat shed.

Interrogation and torture soon reveal who
knew more about weapons of mass destruction
and executions of soldiers who refused

to gas their own citizens. By war's end though,
five dictator look-alikes are discovered
below Palace floors and in bunkers

guarded by Republican Guards. What's more,
having secreted the remains of all
his slaughtered relations, D.N.A. is no option;

having had doubles give speeches while he
and other doubles did voice overs,
the C.I.A. can't rely on laser eye cameras

to reveal the true brute from the newsreels.
Meanwhile, the occupying countries' peoples
demand executions in lieu of War Crimes

Tribunals; they call into talk shows
urging the "cattle prodding" of testicles
each time a double pleads it was policy

never to meet the dictator and other
doubles face to face. And bolstered by poles
accepting fifty-thousand civilian deaths

in a war to deter future terrorists
from killing innocent civilians,
is it any wonder the military general

soon decrees "all five doubles be hung
at the capital." Is it any surprise
the doubles are all spat upon

while marching to the gallows and pleading
about the awful day the state made them
choose between "doubling" or execution?

And imagine, now, the stadiums brimming
with citizens waiting to see the dictator
die five times upon a wide-screen

while officials beam about this
lowering international threat levels
and restoring the world economy.

doubletake the way millions listened
for the crack of vertebrae
and final gasp of human breath

from the last double's collapsed neck
before the cameras turned to the
jumbo screens and capital's streets

and, for a while, no one knew who to blame
as they all looked exactly the same
taking in their tortured faces

and swallowing
the smart bomb of
"hi Mom."