ABlog

1.

Most painful, she said, were her lemon trees, which she had nurtured for years and now lay crushed under the sandy soil crisscrossed with the marks of tank treads.

“We have to go! But where can we go? Where do we go?”

“We are like chickens. They decide what to feed us.”

“Are we going to study in a tent?”

“There’s no place for us to sit together as a family.”

“It was my dream and now it is erased.”

Donkey carts lurched over torn-up roads, spilling pillows and bedding into the dirt.


2.

Five stories of mint-green, concrete rubble had been their science lab.

He had to move a corpse on Sunday morning from near his house, placing it respectfully at the gates of the mosque.

When the shells explode in the air, they disperse pieces of felt soaked in phosphorus.

Larger versions of the shells contain more than 100 of them.

As they got closer, the diggers wore masks.

Part of what makes white phosphorus controversial is that it can be difficult to control how wide the effects are.


3.

“Twenty-one are down there. One is my wife. Her name is Rizka.”

“They killed the elders, the children, the women, the animals, the chickens.”

“I saw my daughter-in-law melt away.”

“In the U.S., when someone shoots someone, is his entire family punished?”

“I never thought I would lose all of them.”

“Fire came from the bodies of my husband and my children.”

In Israel, the cabinet is expected to discuss a proposal that the government defend the military if there are any international attempts to accuse it of improper activity or war crimes. The proposal is expected to assert that soldiers and officers operated in accordance with international law, the military’s values and moral principles.

“A bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours.”




The text of this “found poem” is taken from five articles on Gaza that appeared in the New York Times from January 19 through January 25, 2009:

“Shocked and Grieving Gazans Find Bodies Under the Rubble of Homes,” Sabrina Tavernise with contribution by Nadim Audi, January 19, 1009, p. A6

“Many Civilian Targets, But One Core Question Among Gazans: Why?,” Sabrina Tavernise with contribution by Ethan Bronner, Nadim Audi, January 20, 2009, A12

“Debating the Blame for Reducing Much of a Village to Rubble,” Sabrina Tavernise with contribution by Ethan Bronner and Nadim Audi, January 21, 2009, p. A8

“Outcry Erupts over Reports That Israel Used Phosphorus Arms on Gazans,” Ethan Bronner, January 22, 2009, p. A16

“Amid the Destruction, a Play about Shells for Children Back in School,” Ethan Bronner, January 25, 2009, p. 6