Three other parts from this section,
"Witnessing from Afar the New Escalation of Savage Power."
This was written during the Gulf War, "She was getting old,
had seen a lot, knew a lot, but something innocent
enlivened her, upheld her spirits.
She tended a small altar, kept the candle shielded there,
or tried to.
There was a crash and throb of harsh sound audible always,
but distant.
She believed she had it in her to fend for herself,
and hold despair at bay.
Now when she came to the ridge and saw
the world's raw gash reopened, the whole world a valley
of steaming blood, her small wisdom
gutted in the uprush, rubble dust, meat pulse.
Darkness and the blast leveled her.
Not her own death, that was not yet, the deafening down rush,
shock, shame, no memory, no knowledge,
nor dark imagination, had prepared her for."