White Phosphorous.

• Author: Andersen, Jon
• Position: Poem

There is nothing we will not do to one another and no word we will not use to deny it. --Alexander Taylor Insist on the truth: when white phosphorous drifts across a crowded city, as in Gaza yesterday, it's pretty: plumes above, streamers of burning snow. A man can't escape this furious weather igniting his arms with a fire that nothing can extinguish. I don't mean this metaphorically (although our minds should burn, we should singe our lips, with which we open and close our mouths, open and close around mere words). I mean it literally -- a Willy Pete fire has to burn itself out. No way to help this man lurching forward on all fours, then up to take three heroic...