Found Poem #5

© 2007 by Julius Lester

Found Poem #5

3,000 Deaths
In Iraq
Countless Tears
At Home.

Front page headline, New York Times, January 1, 2007

I can't recall ever reading such a headline on the front page of any newspaper. Monday's NY Times published photographs of those 3,000 Americans who have been killed in Iraq. For any who did not see it, the photographs are on line at

http://www.newyorktimes.com/national

To see how incredibly young so many of them were is heartbreaking. Fifty-eight percent were between the ages of 18-24. I wish it were possible to see the faces of each of the estimated 52,000 Iraqi civilians who have also been killed.

TODAY'S QUOTE

"History is not prelude," she said once. "We don't justify the suffering of people in the past because everything turned out well enough by the time we came along. Their suffering counts just as much as our peace and happiness....Good people do not let others suffer needlessly."

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card, p. 15-16

TODAY'S PHOTOGRAPH

Milkweed Pod