These Are the Days of Scorched Earth

It seems fateful phrases are coming more easily at the moment than regular words.

Even more than the similar postures, what stands out to me is the sight of those trees. Their accompaniment is a reminder that, in spite of how much devastation “civilization” can wreak on itself, things somehow still grow.

(photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images caption: A Palestinian man inspect damages following an overnight Israeli air strike, on July 3, 2014 in Gaza City. photo: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images caption: A man examined debris on Friday from the Malaysia Airlines crash a day earlier, in a field in Grabovo, Ukraine.)