a Bradley Manning poem

small gay and elfish,
the world-wide earthquake
sleeps naked in his cold cell
shivering at the soft vengeance
of the American military machine
(on its best vicious behavior for the press) ....

given leave to dress
and don his wire-rim glasses,
he's led to his "trial"
where only two of his witnesses
are allowed,
and his supervisors aren't called
to testify on his strange, ignored behavior.
Jack the prosecutor,
though restrained by his silk tie
with conch-shell pin,
has a vulture's beak
and a taste for liver

he was just a bent little cog:
a bullied, feminine technician
expected to do his job...
no one was watching
no one suspected
such audacious rage and intelligence
to be here,
a silicon Prometheus
somehow impervious to fear

thus did Puck
get the upper hand
and sent a mountain-splitting earthquake
through many lands...
thus a male Helena
launched a thousand hip news stories
and by pulling the curtain
for one anarchic moment
made actual the impossible democracy
of today's intellectual stage