A WOMAN/DIRGE
FOR WASTED CHILDREN

for Clifford

Awakening

rumors of the necessity for your death

are spread by persistent screaming flickers

in the morning light

I lie

knowing it is past time for sacrifice

I burn

like the hungry tongue of an ochre fire

like a benediction of fury

pushed before the heel of the hand

of the thunder goddess

parting earth's folds with a searching finger

I yield

one drop of blood

which I know instantly

is lost.

A man has had himself

appointed

legal guardian of fetuses.

Centuries of wasted children

warred and whored and slaughtered

anoint me guardian

for life.

But in the early light

another sacrifice is taken

unchallenged

a small dark shape rolls down

a hilly slope

dragging its trail of wasted blood

upon the ground

I am broken

into clefts of screaming

that sound like the drilling flickers

in treacherous morning air

on murderous sidewalks

I am bent

forever

wiping up blood

that should be

you.