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Taken following a lead

They claimed you were a spy

They photographed your suffering

“Submit or he will die”

3 minutes 36 seconds and

The world had been changed

They take what remains 30 miles north

To a shallow grave

And for a minute you’re a media star

Everyone in the world knows who you are

We all knew that it’d go this far

What could they have done? Why couldn’t something have been done?

And what a way to leave a legacy

Your final horrors displayed for all to see

The world witnessed this atrocity

I like to believe that in death you were set free

What hits make a terrorist?

What slights make a racist take a life?

Both sides felt justified

To retaliate- you were the bait

And what a way to make history

A pawn to greed and insanity

You’ll be forgotten the next tragedy

How did this begin? How can it end?

Don’t let the water force you to break

The suffocating flywheel of hate

The sympathy notes Muslims wrote to his wife

A bud in the desert clinging to life