Bare Facts

BARE FACTS When did we stop Learning from the pains Of holy men, Of scholars’ Thorny throats With pulsating words of wisdom Ripped from their tantalizing tongues And fed to greed When did we stop Listening to the screams Of lovers bearing heartbreak Or the mothers bearing babes The babes grown into warriors Puking guts and glory Whose moans in battle or in bottle’s buzzing memory When did we forget the Warriors Memory of loving faces just an Ache an echo of their first faint milky cry (Gangs or armies—bullets taste the same) When do we pause Listen to the screams The screams of a mother baring soul to lover Bearing child, Bearing flowers to the graves forgotten Thru the starry skies of Ursa Major Thru shadowy forbearance she meets the honey dawn Bears another day without… But she cannot bear to break to bend to relinquish her wordless Screaming voice to join the Deep-Down Skulking Bloody She-bear Anger toward her G_d.