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Bitter Smoke of Auschwitz Drifts Over Gaza Tonight (poem)

By Larry Kerschner

over five hundred times
in the first month of the crime
two thousand pound
American-supplied Mark 84 bombs
dropped from high above

created an overpressure effect over
two hundred pounds per square inch
(55 psi causes 99% fatalities)
blasting the people and
the atmosphere outward
followed by powerful inflow
to fill the vacuum created

twenty five thousand bodies spread
from the river to the sea
shredded
covered by the gray
and white falling rubble
a grave marker made of their home

body bits red and pink
small pieces of small skulls
with strands of fine black hair
seven mile per hour wind scatters
fine concrete powder over
the world's largest open air prison
under clear skies

—Larry Kerschner