What Attorney General Janet Reno Did Not Say

WHAT ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO DID NOT SAY TO THE F.B.I. CONCERNING THEIR PLANS TO DEAL WITH KORESH AND THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS

What you ask for is law, but not the law
As I will have it--gentlemen--to be.
Your plan's mere vengeance, a catastrophe
Ab ovo, gun club play, the ass's jaw.
We'll study what we'll do a month from now.
Plan again. Bring many plans to me.--
A year ago, a decade, a God damned century.
Patience and imagination! Slow
Down, gentlemen.

                              We're talking children!
We're talking Revelation, talking fire.
Think children and a monster, you God damned brother.
Hear my words. We're talking fire and children,
And I'm a revelation of your sorrow.
I am your worst fear. I am, weak sons, your mother.

James Whitehead taught creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville when this poem appeared.