Only in New York

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed scares me
Not for razing our Twin Towers.
Nevermore the bastard goes free,
Locked up till his final hours
In Guantánamo? Or elsewhere?
Does it matter? Finally, I care.

Chilling is what else was brought down:
Evidence, obtained by torture,
Water-boarding, where you don’t drown,
Which you’d wish, to get it over.
Custody, without an onus
For a writ of habeas corpus.

Legalese points such as these two
Don’t get welcomed in the same breath
When discussing all of those who
Grimly burned or jumped to their death.
As he finally faces justice,
More I’ve asked myself about this.

Gitmo’s not the place for trial;
Trust civilian prosecution.
Never mind how much he’ll rile.
All the more why in Manhattan
Jurors who recall that morning
Ought to be who issue warning.

Hearing them, like-minded ogres
Might think twice about their capture
When, if New York justice augurs,
Not a sixty-virgin rapture,
Rather, Burn! chants in their ear lobes
Making them acute Bronx-cheer phobes.