Refracting not reflecting on the war in Ukraine

 

We bought The Guardian on Saturday and it came with a poem by Simon Armitage about the war in Ukraine. You can read the article on this link. He talks about a "refracted version of the obscene images". That interested me because people usefully talk about reflecting on events. Both are good physics words. Simon Armitage is one of the best users of the English language. So what could he mean by "refracted"? I guess in the sense that refraction bends light, sometimes leaving images distorted - but then twisted mirrors produce strange reflections. Refraction makes things appear at the wrong depth. Also it helps to focus. The news images have been horrifying and disturbing. It was good to note that so many Physics Nobel Laureates had signed a protest letter in the same newspaper. Read the poem here.