This fist-sized exit wound
on the inside of the man’s thigh
a foot above the knee
bleeds surprisingly little.
Had the bullet split the artery—
thick black line pulsing deep in the wound—
the man would already be dead but
now Doc Guerrero fingers gauze into the hole
and the man screams and seizes
my arm and doesn’t let go
even after Guerrero finishes splinting the leg.
An older Iraqi sitting
zip-tied and blindfolded
next to a Humvee tire lifts his head
when the wounded man stops screaming.
