By Sarah Adams:

He is going to die.
He knows he is young
and he is still fairly unsurprised
to find that his life is not flashing before his eyes,
as he had been led to expect
merely the last eighteen days:
His mother
kissing him on both cheeks at the airport,
crying as he smiled
and told her that he loved her,
he’d try to visit soon
and write letters, and that he’d be fine,
and once more,
“I love you”
The luggage on the bus to
The room where he would stay
The flight when he was
too excited
to sleep, though he was exhausted
Arrival
Leaving the airport and all remnants of
everything he knew
along with it
Walking
Hunger
The sights the sounds the smells the feelings and the thoughts
The boy
The car
The death
The broken family
The broken heart
The jail
The terror
The pain
The trial
The Urdu which he could not know
And the truth:
That which he could not make them know
That he was not a murderer
That he had tried to save the boy
And now his death
He is so young
He does not want to die.
He begins to shake as
The policeman begins to strap him into
The chair.
He continues to shake
more violently this time,
as his executioner flips
The Big Red Switch.
He stops shaking.