Hospitality

Angels_____daughters_____sons
don't die as clean
__________as animals
at each other's hands.
_____Asafoetida
bitter stench
_____greasy smoke
writhes, a Salome dance
__________over
and around conquered lands,
_____under a sun
obdurate; its gold-white
light appears to recoil
from vulture-stripped bones
baked into hard clay soil.
__________Bread broken
under this roof
__________the host
offers with a mirthless,
_____half-toothed grin.