The Waziris call them ‘bangana’ (Pashto
for ‘buzzing wasps’) as they drone day and night –
like Doodlebugs in perpetual motion –
endlessly visible, unremittingly
audible, five thousand feet above
the clay-walled villages and towns, the markets
and the farms, the madrassas and the schools,
until some CIA operative,
in a Nevada mountain bunker,
or RAF personnel near Lincoln,
wakes and, after his/her double espresso
and cranberry muffin, identifies
the true enemy and left-clicks the mouse.
Note: the piece has subsequently been published at http://thirdsundaybc.com/2012/12/
By David Selzer