At the Cambodian Video Store on Stockton

“In my country of X was the same,”
affirms the video-shop owner,
TV dispatches blaring inside,
where first-run new releases display themselves.
But I’m ashamed that I find in her eyes pleased delight
as Iraq loses an uneven contest against an empire.
As if war on civilians were a secret society,
and, finally, she was on a winning side,
although I assured her that the true heart
in any order declines war.