shrapnel

“there are photos as well -- one shows a
father rushing through the street, his face
torn with a last frantic hope,
his son in his arms, rag-limp, chest and
abdomen speckled with deep, dark gashes
and smears of blood,
propaganda's function, of course, is
exaggeration: the facts are there, though,
the child is there… or not there.”

-- c. k. williams (1936-)