Contents

‘Photographing the building is forbidden until the war is over’ 1 Your Saddam 6 Cyrus Vance sat on my couch 8 The Daisy Cutter 10 A cow and a goose 11 Specialised 12 Skypointing 14 And all the time 16 Monument to the South African Republic (on some photographs by David Goldblatt)

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Ravenous

Eight frescoes from the lost palaces of Zanj

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the furious women bare themselves the four students run for the border

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he hides all night while they murder his family they were caught and chained in a van

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she gave birth while prison guards tortured her and laughed 26 a six-year-old boy is digging a grave for a baby 27 the colours there 28 like paper flowers unfolding in water 29 Local fauna 30 Be bear 31 Non sequitur 32 In the empty station 34 Man series I 35 Six eggs in the fridge 37 Mindfulness 39 Thank you Lee Smolin, thank you Mr Leibniz 40 If you wrote about domestic things 41 Once we did get out of the car 42 Men always have an idea 43 Shine 44 The sad little poems 45 Pasternak’s shadow 46 Love songs for Lake Como 48 Val di Bondo 49 Amsterdam night 50