The Hazaras' Home by Ashley Makar

The Taliban bombed the Buddhas out of Bamia
and chiseled the remnants from the rock--
de-creating what came before the third Word,
the last and right revelation.

Scholars blew out what had seen the silk from China to Rome,
watched white cap the Babas through fifteen hundred winters,
withstood Genghis Kahn, the Soviets, the terror of the tribes,
witnessed the Arabs convert the caves.

Modern men killed colossi; the fake form is harem,
and removed the Mongol men awaiting the imam.
Some rot slowly in the frozen soil; the rest return, after this round of war,
to mud and ashes, sandstone blasted, two gaping niches in the rock.