Israel warns Gaza residents: We’ve only just begun…

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in an open field
in farmland
among the rocks
of mountains
among the dunes
of a desert
in a boat
on a cove
or out at sea

enemies are small targets
on a background
hard to hit
without someone’s strenuous effort

but in cities
the bodies are packed
so close

it is hard to tell
who exactly has died
until after a city’s fabric is torn
into mourning garments
bandages
flags

so what someone has to do
is drop enough bombs
in enough places
fire enough bullets
into enough walls
cover enough of the street grid
with enough clusters and bursts of flame
to ensure
that the targets
desired will be struck

if the barrage rips off
the heads of children
the arms of anonymous old men
the faces of doppelgangers
for old enemies

they will remain uncounted as anything more
than strings from the ragged hems of war

until a face
found unstitched from its skull
can be identified as a target
after the fact

then someone can declare the garment
finished

and the scraps can be swept away