Night of Bush Capturing
August Smith
I am gunning down Iraqi soldiers. Later
in the poem they will be American soldiers,
though the difference is simply textural:
their hidden wireframes are no different,
their polygonal bullets pierce the same,
their movements still awkward and jerky,
their blood a misty blip of cartoon red.
It’s easy to feel nothing for these bodies
that disappear before they hit the ground.
They could belong to the young men
of any region. But at this desert mosque
I know they are simulations of Iraqis.
In 2003, Jesse Petrilla developed
Quest for Saddam, a first-person shooter
where the player storms a crude temple
and viciously rips through scores
of turban-crowned enemies. On the walls
hang pixelated pictures of Saddam in lingerie.
There are “Camel-Cola” vending machines,
obscene references to goats, and crates
of “Made in France” gasmasks.
Three years after that game’s release,
al-Qaeda game developers responded with
Night of Bush Capturing. It’s identical
to the aforementioned game in form, design,
and content except the images of Saddam
are replaced with images of President Bush,
the soldiers have been visually altered
to resemble Americans, and Saddam—
the former final boss—is now Bush himself
eyes wide and mouth agape in
unsubtle mockery. Now I am gunning down
American soldiers who were once
Iraqi soldiers, though again the difference
is simply textural: their hidden wireframes
are unchanged, their polygonal bullets
pierce the same, their movements still
awkward and jerky, their blood still a misty
blip of cartoon red. It’s easy to feel nothing
for these bodies disappearing before
they hit the ground. They could belong
to the young men of any region,
but at this desert base I know they are
simulations of Americans. A re-skin:
a developer drapes their own imagery
over the stanzas of a game, garbing
a tiny unsafe reality. The simple buildings
were not altered. The trigger you pull
delivers an equivalent kick. Each soldier
requires the same number of bullets
before crumping with an identical scream.mp3.