Actuality News Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

Beside the bodies of a man and woman
an infant sits sifting sand
through her fingers.

In the battle zone
that was a village
he lifts his camera
composes the shot
releases the shutter:

an image floods the lens,
is encoded.

On the front page
of the Sunday News
the image of a small
child sifting sand
through her fingers
beside two reclining figures
will be decoded
over breakfast
after the agonising
sports results
have been digested.