On [:] Retreat | Janine Di Giovanni, 2016

Attempt at a natural history of crabs and crayfish. Vol. 1., 1790

“Some have left, others are dead. The few who remain have nothing new to talk about. You can’t get to their houses, because the road is blocked by checkpoints. Or snipers take a shot when you leave your door, so you scurry back inside, like a crab retreating inside its shell. Or you might go out on the wrong day and a barrel bomb, dropped by a government helicopter, lands near you.

Wartime looks like this.”

Janine Di Giovanni, The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria, 2016