image: Mary Williams, left, and Robert Williams comfort each other Saturday, Aug. 6, 2005, in Columbus, Ohio as the casket of their son, Cpl. Andre Williams, who was killed on July 28 in Iraq, is brought to the cemetery. Williams was a member of Lima Company 3rd Battalion based in Columbus, of which nine of fourteen Marines killed Wednesday in Iraq were also members.
(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
with special love and honor for Cindy Sheehan and the residents of Camp Casey
Cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
from Help Me to Salt, Help Me to Sorrow
by Judy Jordan
In the moon-fade and the sun’s puppy breath,
in the crow’s plummeting cry,
in my broken foot and arthritic joints,
memory calls me
to the earth’s opening, the graves dug, again, and again
I, always I am left
to turn away
into a bat’s wing-brush of air.
That never changes . . .
not this morning, not here
where I’ve just found
in the back of my truck, under the rubber mat,
in a teacup’s worth of dirt,
where it seems no seed could possibly be
a corn kernel split to pale leaves and string-roots.
It’s a strange leap but I make it
and bend to these small harvests
– – –
complete poem
– – –
This diary series is dedicated to all who suffer because of war
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
read this soldier’s blog
witness every day
