Reverberation

There is a reality to war that those who order it seldom have to see. This image, from an archive of unreleased stuff on Iraq is particularly shocking for its depiction of casual brutality. It seems to me that it shows a dead adult with what looks like a dead child on top while a US solider stands nearby.




AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and place and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying

from The Wasteland, TS Eliot.