this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
Um Adel (R) and her husband Abed Hammed Abbas look at a picture of their 31-year-old mentally ill son Adel Abed Hammed in their home in Baghdad October 20, 2005. Mentally ill since childhood Adel Abed Hammed used to wander the streets of Baghdad alone until some American soldiers shot him dead after he panicked in response to a shot fired over his head.
REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz/Files
Blackberry-picking
by Seamus Heaney
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.
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support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
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remember the fallen
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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
witness every day
Copy the image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment.
how can we live
with the horror
we become
reflected
in a child’s eyes?
((((Rub))))
The bastards.
That could have been Wesley.
Sorry heart is too heavy.
.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two rockets and a car bomb hit the Palestine Hotel on Monday, injuring at least one person and causing considerable damage to the building that houses many foreign journalists, Iraqi police said.
Video of the blast showed huge clouds of smoke and dust billowing. At least one fire was started by falling debris.
The attacks shattered windows and caused heavy damage to the south side of the 19-story hotel, forcing journalists, including those from The Associated Press, to take refuge in the corridor. refuge in the corridor. Inside the hotel, pictures were blown off walls and windows shattered.
A huge explosion is seen near the Palestine hotel, the building at right, in Baghdad. The Palestine Hotel, which houses many foreign journalists in Iraq, was hit by two rockets and one car bomb, causing considerable damage to rooms and injuring at least one person. AP Photo/Khalid MohammedMaj. Abbas Mohammed Suleiman said the hotel compound was hit by two rockets and one car bomb.
After the attack, automatic heavy weapons fire rang out in the area although it was not clear what it came from.
Light a candle…
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY
Peace and Love.
Copy and paste this to light your own candle:
<img src=”http://www.jsoucy.org/iraq/images/candle_flame_1.gif“ height=”68″ width=”52″ />
How many of us would NOT panic when shot at…. I can’t imagine not.
My son panics at the sound of an intercom being turned on… he panics when he thinks he did something wrong. He panics when he hears a baby cry…
Someone lost a child because they panicked… I feel like I can’t breathe… the sadness is overwhelming today. I want to get in my car and go get both my kids and hold them close. Damn WARS and DAMN the people who support them.
Thank you for the c/p prompt Ubikkibu.
Peace
Damn them!
has been on the recommended list alot lately. I’m glad that is.
Too Many Will Suffer For Far Too Long!
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance and Understanding
Morning Report 10/24/05
Hate to Say I Toll You So
Bush regime starts counting dead Iraqis — selectively
This one doesn’t count: A Falluja child, injured by U.S. bombing just after Bush’s re-election last November, is stitched up by an Iraqi doc.
****
I am borrowing 2 of your candles today: One for this diary, and one for the Rosa Parks diary.
I hope you don’t mind?