On April 7, 2012, an avalanche killed 136 Pakistani soldiers and civilians on the Siachen Glacier, underscoring the futility of the conflict there between Pakistan and India. Below, Jonathan Wu offers a poem in response to Teru Kuwayama's print from Siachen:

Siachen, 1984 -

It is a curious thing how
an image
  strikes you --
 
The jagged mountains,
  the dark
ghostly figure, walking
into luminous snow, bright
beyond form.

The image settles in;
the mind digs deeper.
 
A cold, slow
  war.  Cold and slow as the glacier
itself, fought
for no reason, with no
end
 
as the earth wields its brutal
  beauty, unrelenting
amidst fighting men.

Billowed sky and sharp stone
converge,
a faceless figure in slow, sacred
  procession,
a body shrouded.

I feel
   a mourning

A few years back, Jonathan Wu left his job at a big internet company to pursue his passion for sustainable agriculture. While he works out the details, he can be found double-digging his backyard garden, re-skilling at the local community college, or playing concerts to cows. His favorite poets are Mary Oliver, Robert Hass, and Wendell Berry.

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